NASA completed setting up the test vehicle for the demonstration of the abort system of its Orion spacecraft. The space agency will assess the system’s performance on July 2 at Cape Canaveral in Florida, NASASpaceFlight.com, reported Friday. The Ascent Abort-2 test will be the second and last for the Launch Abort System on the Lockheed Martin-built Orion spacecraft. NASA delivered the system’s test booster to the launch pad in April, followed by the test article and the Orion Crew Module in May. 

During the demonstration, the test article will transmit data to ground stations in real time, while onboard data recorders will be ejected from the Crew Module before the system falls into the Atlantic Ocean. Mark Kirasich, NASA’s Orion program manager, said the module will carry a tool that senses the acceleration of the abort system along with a separate component connected to an avionics box called the Attitude Control Motor Controller. 

“The computer in the Crew Module tells us which way to steer and then it’s the ACM controller which controls the pintles and the thrust of the pintles and steers it,” he said. 

NASA first conducted tests of Orion’s abort system in 2010. The agency plans to use the production version of LAS in Orion’s first planned crewed mission in 2023. 

A Senate committee is requiring the Department of Defense to maximize commercial spaceports to launch small satellites and expand the involvement of commercial capabilities in the agency’s space operations, SpaceNews reported Monday. The Senate Armed Services Committee issued its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020, which includes amendments to support the growing small launch industry.

The bill would require DoD to create a plan to utilize and modernize infrastructure on underused spaceports that are licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration to support U.S. launches. SASC said the FAA-licensed spaceports could serve as an alternative to Vandenberg Air Force Base in launching small and medium payloads while providing DoD with less costly sites and services.

“Significant investments have been made at inland spaceports, which already have the infrastructure in place to accommodate smaller space launches for the department,” the SASC bill states. 

The Senate panel would also require DoD to report plans to take advantage of commercial vehicles and facilities in support of its future operations in space. 

The Department of Defense plans to integrate the strategic capabilities office into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to centralize more research divisions under Michael Griffin, DoD undersecretary for research and engineering and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient, Reuters reported Friday.

The SCO oversees the development of technological capabilities against emerging threats. Its projects include drone swarming and modification of Standard Missile 6 to become an offensive weapon system. DARPA requested $3.5 billion in funds for fiscal 2020 and would assume $1.3 billion in additional budget, or 37 percent more, for the next fiscal year should DoD proceed with its plan to transition SCO to DARPA, according to the report.

President Trump is calling on the intelligence community to “quickly and fully cooperate” with investigations on alleged surveillance operations during the 2016 presidential elections, the White House said Thursday. Trump is directing the community to comply with the attorney general, who is tasked with examining potential cases of election-related interference and will have full and complete authority to declassify information relevant to the investigation. 

“As part of that process, I am confident that the Attorney General will work with the IC in accordance with the long-established standards to protect highly-sensitive classified information that, if publicly released, would put our national security at risk,” said Daniel Coats, director of national intelligence, in a separate press release.

According to the White House statement, the directive ensures the nation will learn about the government’s actions to address the issue and “restore confidence in our public institutions.”