Bryant A.M. Baker' Blog

  Hello and welcome to this space briefing.  It is Monday, April 18 , 2022, and I am your host Bryant A.M. Baker.  In this show we will count down the top 5 things happening in the world of space.  I hope you will find it interesting and useful.  So let’s get started. [SWITCH TO CORNER VIEW] 1. The National Reconnaissance Office (or NRO) successfully launched the NROL-85 mission aboard a reflown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4E located at Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California yesterday at 6:13 a.m. Pacific Time. The Falcon 9 reusable rocket booster returned safely to Landing Zone 4 after delivering the national security payload to orbit. NROL-85 is NRO’s second launch this year and the first time NRO has reused a rocket booster previously launched to space. NROL-85 is NRO’s fourth launch from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the second Falcon 9 launch procured through the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract. NSSL is a govern...

  In today’s space brief, (1) everyone keeps saying “no” to SpaceX, how are they going to get around it? (2) China gets a huge boost to satellite outputs, and (3) the military community unites around the idea of “space norms.”  This much and more, stick around. 1. Today, Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) and Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) sent a letter to President Biden expressing their concerns regarding the Administration’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for commercial space accident investigation that was issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The letter stated in part that the “Responsibilities and authorities for space accident investigation are to be determined by congressional action, as reflected in Title 51 of the United States Code, not through proposed regulations that are outside of established authorities. The NTSB’s proposed rulemaking is inconsistent with statutory authorities, existing interagency agreements and regulations, ...

  In today’s space brief, (1) important words from Space Force and US Space Command leadership on the changing nature of the space domain, (2) NASA is forced to stop SLS again, and (3) the huge launch procurement announcement made by Amazon.  Stick around. 1. NASA ended its first attempt to conduct a wet dress rehearsal for the maiden flight test of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft to the moon on yesterday, after four days of wrestling with a series of technical challenges and weather delays. Engineers were able to get one of the massive core stage’s tanks about 50 percent filled with liquid oxygen before having to stop on Monday. They were unable to load liquid hydrogen into another SLS tank due to a technical problem. Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson explained during a media teleconference on Tuesday that “This was the first test at the pad with cryogenics…one of our primary objectives is now complete… [and] three of the five secondary objectives ...