[SpaceNews] A cutoff of live video on a recent SpaceX launch reflects new awareness by regulators of the imaging capabilities of onboard cameras on launch vehicles and requirements for companies to adhere to laws that some in the industry believe are outdated.
During the March 30 launch of 10 Iridium Next satellites on a SpaceX Falcon 9, SpaceX cut off the live video from the rocket’s second stage nine minutes after liftoff. The company cited “restrictions” imposed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for terminating the live feed.
“The SpaceX application was received by our office four days before launch,” said Tahara Dawkins{see Photo}, director of CRSRA, at an April 3 meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing here. She noted that, under law, the office has up to 120 days to make a ruling on a license application
They are not ready for commercial space with quick turn-around. Obviously not ready for anything not totally bureaucratic.
but undertook an “extremely expedited review” that was completed in three days, working very closely with SpaceX, an effort she called “unprecedented.”
In order to get a license approved in some form in time for the launch, Dawkins said the government agreed to temporarily waive a number of requirements for the license. That, however, did not extend to permitting live public video from orbit.
“With additional time to review and evaluate and, if necessary, elevate, we could have worked it out a little bit more and maybe allowed for live streaming,” she said. For future launches, “we’re hoping to get a better review of what that livestreaming is, and what potential risk to national security each one will have.”
It looks like another department has been identified for Trump to radically prune or eliminate.
Dawkins said that no previous SpaceX launches had NOAA commercial remote sensing licenses, even though many have flown onboard cameras, including several previous Iridium missions. An April 2 launch of a Falcon 9 from Florida carrying a Dragon cargo spacecraft had no such restrictions, she said, because that was considered a government mission. While the spacecraft is performing a mission under contract to NASA, the launch itself was considered commercial and licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
NOAA was not aware of the previous launches that featured onboard cameras. “Our office is extremely small, and there’s a lot of things out there that we miss,” she said. “The onus is on the companies to come to us and get a license when needed.”
Some in the industry speculate a tipping point may have come with the inaugural launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket. That launch placed a Tesla Roadster sports car in orbit, attached to the rocket’s upper stage and equipped with several cameras. Those cameras provided live views of the car, with the Earth often in the background, for several hours after launch. The live feed attracted at times hundreds of thousands of viewers.
NOAA did not directly address at the committee meeting any link between the Falcon Heavy launch and the new scrutiny regarding remote sensing licensing of upper stages. Dawkins, specifically asked about that launch, confirmed it did not have a NOAA license.
#4
Skidmark - that article shows 2 virtual Bezos rockets and a 40 years since flight Sat 5. None of Musk's virtual rockets like BRF/BFS and the NASA virtual SLS rocket. The BFS (upper stage of BFR) will start flying next year. That's is before Bezo's virtual rockets and maybe the same timeframe as NASA's SLS.
#6
DNI Coats
Coats: “We have to become much more agile, more innovative, more creative.”
Maybe you will need to delete bureaucracies like NOAA Mr. DNI.
The Justice Department recently indicted four "fraudsters" in New York who raised more than $125,000 through a bogus "wounded warrior" charity to benefit themselves rather than to help veterans. It is a recurring problem for people who watch those constant commercials showing trembling dogs in wire cages or heartbreaking kids with cleft lips. Most charities fund legitimate, desperately needed programs but often are harmed by an unscrupulous few.
One recent campaign has attracted huge donations based on dubious claims – and it comes from within the Justice Department itself. The cause is Andrew McCabe, and both the timing and the pitch are strikingly premature. Former FBI Deputy Director McCabe's GoFundMe page for a "legal defense fund" appeared after he was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Originally asking for only $150,000, the campaign continued to adjust its goal upward and, in a matter of a few days, surpassed half a million dollars. That is equivalent to more than a decade of McCabe's expected pension.
McCabe issued a statement today, saying that the legal fund "will cease accepting donations on GoFundMe" and acknowledging that the "donations have more than tripled the original goal." McCabe said in part that the campaign "began organically, with generous people spontaneously giving to accounts that others had set up. I never imagined that I would need to rely on this type of assistance." Yet, with reports of various investigations "and misleading information about the circumstances of my firing," he said, "the need for substantial resources for a legal team has become clear."
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Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2018 08:53 ||
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#2
"She said she was working to pay her way through college"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/04/2018 9:06 Comments ||
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#3
I still have serious doubts about her story but I'm also very happy that Trump took the high ground and avoided attacking her on Twitter (something I suspect her plan had not anticipated).
#5
A tawdry kind of appeal, and a hard but somewhat comely visage, notwithstanding the commercial grade silicone endowments , the kind of soiled dove that has an appeal after several single malts.....but hardly the kind that one considers for repeat visitations?
#6
I was reading several commenters who bothered to watch her interview, who said that her pupils appeared dilated indicating drug use. Not someone you'd want to exchange body fluids with if you didn't want to take something home to Mama.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[SpaceNews] A cutoff of live video on a recent SpaceX launch reflects new awareness by regulators of the imaging capabilities of onboard cameras on launch vehicles and requirements for companies to adhere to laws that some in the industry believe are outdated.
The Justice Department recently indicted four "fraudsters" in New York who raised more than $125,000 through a bogus "wounded warrior" charity to benefit themselves rather than to help veterans. It is a recurring problem for people who watch those constant commercials showing trembling dogs in wire cages or heartbreaking kids with cleft lips. Most charities fund legitimate, desperately needed programs but often are harmed by an unscrupulous few.
