March 21, 2019 - No. 023 In This Issue GE Aviation plans to expand Auburn plant, add more jobs, invest $50 million Bright skies for plant-based jet fuels Automation of Planes Began 9 Years After the Wright Bros Took Flight Savannah Technical College announces new avionics training The Marines' Plywood Supply Drone Is Undergoing Flight Tests Blockchain Could Revolutionize Part Lifecycle Records Etihad Airways and Elenium Use Ground-Breaking Technology to Revolutionize the Travel Experience. Recent Advancements in Doppler Radar with Dual-Pol Technology China develops new energy battery powered UAV. Elon Musk says SpaceX's first Starship test flight 'hops' are only days away GE Aviation plans to expand Auburn plant, add more jobs, invest $50 million GE Aviation plans to invest $50 million to expand the additive manufacturing operation at its Auburn facility using 3-D printing technologies, Gov. Kay Ivey announced on Wednesday. The move will create 60 new jobs, bringing GE's Auburn facility employment to 300 during 2019, and perhaps more importantly it will better position the plant for future production using the new technology. GE will install advanced new additive production machines in Auburn, which will allow the factory to launch high-volume production of a second engine part using the additive process, according to a statement from the governor's office. "GE Aviation is at the leading edge of advanced aerospace additive manufacturing, and the company's expansion plans at the Auburn facility will strengthen its technology leadership position," Ivey said. "We look forward to seeing where the great partnership between Alabama and GE Aviation will take us both in an exciting future." The Auburn facility was GE Aviation's first site to mass produce a jet engine component using 3-D printing technologies. The company already has invested more than $100 million at its Auburn site and today employs about 230 people at the facility, the release stated. "We're grateful for GE's continued investment in our community, and we are proud to be the home of GE Aviation's leading additive manufacturing facility," said Auburn Mayor Ron Anders. "For years, Auburn has sought after technology-based industries, and this expansion is evidence of the value in that. "Thanks to the team at GE, Gov. Kay Ivey and her staff and all of those involved in bringing about this expansion. We look forward to GE's further success, fueled in part by a workforce educated right here in Auburn." In 2015, the Auburn facility began producing a fuel nozzle tip using additive technologies. Because of the expansion, the Auburn facility will begin mass production of a 3-D printed bracket for the GEnx-2B engine program. "We're very excited for this new investment in our additive manufacturing operation here in Auburn," GE Aviation's Auburn plant leader, Ricardo Acevedo, said. "Our success thus far is a testament to all the hard-working folks at this facility who are leading the way in advanced manufacturing. "The future here is bright, and we're glad to have such great support from the Auburn community and the state of Alabama." GE Aviation opened its Auburn plant in 2013. The company announced in 2014 that it would bring high volume 3-D printing to its Auburn facility. https://www.oanow.com/news/auburn/ge-aviation-plans-to-expand-auburn-plant-add-more-jobs/article_162393c4-4b24-11e9-aa72-f3cfd6b149a3.html Back to Top Bright skies for plant-based jet fuels With an estimated daily fuel demand of more than 5 million barrels per day, the global aviation sector is incredibly energy-intensive and almost entirely reliant on petroleum-based fuels. Unlike other energy sectors such as ground transportation or residential and commercial buildings, the aviation industry can't easily shift to renewable energy sources using existing technologies. However, a new analysis by scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) shows that sustainable plant-based bio-jet fuels could provide a competitive alternative to conventional petroleum fuels if current development and scale-up initiatives continue to push ahead successfully. "Techno-economic analysis and life-cycle greenhouse gas mitigation cost of five routes to bio-jet fuel blendstocks," published recently in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, provides promising evidence that optimizing the biofuel production pipeline -- taking carbohydrate-rich plant material and using genetically modified bacteria to digest the isolated sugars into energy-dense molecules that are then chemically converted into a fuel product -- is well worth the effort. "It's challenging to electrify aviation using batteries or fuel cells in part because of the weight restrictions on aircraft, so liquid biofuels have the potential to play a big role in greenhouse gas emissions reductions," said lead author Corinne Scown, a researcher in Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies Area as well as DOE's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). "The team at JBEI has been working on biological routes to advanced bio-jet fuel blends that are not only derived from plant-based sugars but also have attractive properties that could actually provide an advantage over conventional jet fuels." How to get fuel from plant material Currently, multidisciplinary teams based at JBEI are focused on optimizing each stage of the bio-jet fuel production process. Some researchers specialize in engineering ideal source plants -- referred to as biomass -- that create a high proportion of carbohydrates and a low proportion of lignin, a type of material that, as of now, is more challenging to make useful. Meanwhile, others are developing methods for efficiently isolating the carbohydrates in non-food biomass and breaking them into sugar molecules that bacteria can digest, or "bioconvert," into a fuel molecule. To obtain the highest possible yield from bioconversion, yet other JBEI researchers are examining what genetic and environmental factors make the modified bacteria more efficient. Once these stages are optimized, JBEI scientists can transition the technologies to commercial partners who may then modify and blend the fuels into ready-to-use products and devise strategies to industrialize the scale of production. Given the vast amount of experimentation and innovation needed to accomplish all this, Scown and her co-authors used innovative analysis methods to assess whether the undertaking could actually reach the end game of a jet fuel alternative that airlines will want to use. "Our hope is that early in the research stages, we can at least simulate what we think it would look like if you develop these fuel production routes to the point of maturity," Scown said. "If you were to push them to the ethanol benchmark -- the technology to create ethanol from plant material like corn stalks, leaves, and cobs has been around a long time, and we can ferment sugars with a 90 percent efficiency -- how close would this get us to the market price of petroleum fuels? That is important to know now. "Thankfully, the answer is they can be viable. And we've identified improvements that need to happen all along the conversion process to make that happen." Imagining the production process at scale Due to the biomass deconstruction and fuel synthesis technologies developed at JBEI, the theoretical cost of bio-jet fuel has declined steadily in recent years and is currently as low as $16 per gallon, as compared to $300,000 per gallon when JBEI was established, according to co-author and JBEI postdoctoral fellow Nawa Baral. The cost of standard jet fuel is about $2.50 per gallon. To explore how bio-jet fuel could bridge the remaining price gap, the research team used complex computer simulations that modeled the necessary technology and subsequent costs of complete, scaled-up production pathways at different efficiency levels and with a range of biomass and chemical inputs. The authors simulated a total of five different production pathways to four distinct fuel molecules. The results showed that all five pathways could indeed create fuel products at the target price of $2.50 per gallon if manufacturers are able to convert the leftover lignin into a valuable chemical -- something JBEI researchers are currently working toward -- that could be sold to offset the cost of biofuels. The net price of a gallon of biofuel could be lowered further if airlines were offered even a modest financial credit for emissions reduction. Following some industry research, the team also found that airlines may be willing to pay a premium of as much as fifty cents per gallon because all four biofuels deliver more energy per unit volume, meaning a plane could fly farther on a tank of the same size. "The development of plant-based compounds that have a performance advantage over their petroleum-based counterparts is an important factor in determining their marketplace viability," said Blake Simmons, a co-author and the Chief Science and Technology Officer at JBEI. However, as promising as these findings are, getting the biofuel production technology to the gold-standard yields assumed in these simulations will require further advances. "It's clear that, to get these fuels to commercial viability, we need all hands on deck," Scown noted. "But this analysis highlights the importance of multi-institutional, integrative research centers like JBEI because no group working on one phase of the process alone can make it happen." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190319083920.htm Back to Top Automation of Planes Began 9 Years After the Wright Bros Took Flight-But Still Leads to Baffling Disasters The first successful airplane pilot, Wilbur Wright, flew his 1903 craft by lying on his stomach, pushing and pulling levers as the wind swept over his head. Since then, piloting a plane has become a lot less physical thanks to automation and autopilot functions that do a lot of pilots' work for them. But there have also been serious accidents linked to this technological advancement-like in 2009, when automation technology failed on Air France Flight 447, and pilots weren't able to take control manually. Automating certain functions was necessary to making bigger and better planes. After all, Wright's plane couldn't fly as fast or far as jets today, let alone seat the number of people that a modern commercial plane can. Just nine years after Wright flew his plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a man named Lawrence Sperry created the first successful autopilot. Sperry's invention was known as "gyroscopic automatic pilot," or "George," as many pilots nicknamed it; and its innovation was to automatically balance the plane in flight so the pilot didn't have to. Sperry's autopilots became popular during the 1920s and '30s. Howard Hughes installed one on the plane he used to set a world record (he flew around the world in 3 days and 19 hours), and American World War II planes had similar devices. After the war came the boom in commercial air travel, and more demand for automation. In the 1950s, commercial planes had five crew members in the cockpit: a flight engineer, a radio operator, a navigator and two pilots. Over the next few decades, automation and improved technology made the first three jobs unnecessary-and saved airline companies a lot of money. During the 1970s, airline companies started exploring automation using digital technology. At the time, studies showed that most plane accidents were caused by human error rather than mechanical error, so automation seemed like a way to make air travel safer (self-driving car developers also use this argument). With these safety studies in mind, the aviation company Airbus set out to design a plane that even a bad pilot could safely fly. For this, the company developed a new "fly-by-wire system." "Whereas autopilot just does what a pilot tells it to do, fly-by-wire is a computer-based control system that can interpret what the pilot wants to do and then execute the command smoothly and safely," explains Slate. "For example, if the pilot pulls back on his or her control stick, the fly-by-wire system will understand that the pilot wants to pitch the plane up, and then will do it at just the right angle and rate." In the late 1980s, Airbus fully introduced this technology for the first time on its A320 plane, also known as the "Electric Jet." Other aircraft carriers like Boeing adopted these fly-by-wire systems in the 1990s. But in the 21st century, this technology drew scrutiny after a series of accidents in which automation was a factor. In a 2009, an Air France Flight 447 from Rio de Janeiro to Paris mysteriously crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 people aboard. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the Airbus A330-200 plane in the middle of a thunderstorm, and investigators didn't discover the plane's black box records for over two years. They concluded the autopilot and fly-by-wire functions had malfunctioned and turned themselves off, and the pilots were unable to take over the plane manually. Journalist and former pilot William Langewiesche later wrote in Vanity Fair that because flying a commercial plane had become such an automated process, the pilots on Flight 447 didn't have the experience necessary to take over in emergency conditions. "To put it briefly," he wrote, "automation has made it more and more unlikely that ordinary airline pilots will ever have to face a raw crisis in flight-but also more and more unlikely that they will be able to cope with such a crisis if one arises." This was a problem the Future Aviation Safety Team had been warning airlines about since at least 2004. The Flight 447 crash prompted calls to retrain pilots on how to manually fly a plane, but a decade later, concerns about pilots not having enough experience to take over a plane manually persist. Investigators are still determining what caused the Lion Air Flight 610 crash in October 2018 that killed 189 people and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash in March 2019 that killed 157; but many suspect automation programs in the Boeing 737 Max plane may have played a role in these deadly disasters. https://www.history.com/news/plane-automation-autopilot-flight-302-610 Back to Top Savannah Technical College announces new avionics training Savannah Technical College, along with Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. and other industry leaders, has announced the development of two new avionics certificates as part of the college's technical training curriculum to begin in May. The curriculum is new for the state of Georgia and the new certificates were approved by the Technical College System of Georgia this week. "We are proud to be on the cutting edge of developing new instructional programs like this," Savannah Tech president Kathy Love said. "We would not have been able to do so without working so closely with Gulfstream. They collaborated with us to create curriculum and helped us identify critical training equipment. Gulfstream is an exemplary business partner committed to investing in workforce development and career readiness." With a sizable pledge from Gulfstream, the college will equip its new avionics lab with advanced equipment, including 13 electronic trainers, four fully outfitted avionics technician boxes and a data bus trainer. The amount of the pledge was not made public. "Through our partnership with Savannah Technical College, we continue to train and prepare students for aerospace careers," said Jay Neely, vice president for law and public affairs at Gulfstream. "The college's new avionics program is the most recent example of our collaborative commitment to ensure we are providing local students with the tools and training they need to be successful in our field." About the curriculum The avionics certificates may be completed in two semesters starting in May. The first semester, students will take three courses to earn the Avionics Installer Certificate: Introduction to Aircraft and Aviation Fundamentals, Basic Aircraft Electricity and Basic Aircraft Electrical Wiring and Troubleshooting. Upon completion of the installer certificate or equivalent work experience, students will advance to the Avionics Technician Certificate, including three courses: Aircraft Navigation, Communication and Avionics Systems, Advance Aircraft Electricity and Advance Aircraft Wiring and Troubleshooting. https://www.blufftontoday.com/news/20190319/savannah-technical-college-announces-new-avionics-training Back to Top The Marines' Plywood Supply Drone Is Undergoing Flight Tests A wooden aircraft is flying the California skies, but this is no spruce goose. LG-1K, developed by Logistic Gliders Inc under contract with DARPA and the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, is meant to be a very low-cost drone capable of being released from fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter. The plywood and aluminum drone is 10.4 feet long with a 23=foot wingspan. The LG-1K can carry up to 700 lb.s of supplies. It's now flown twelve missions demonstrating its ability to glide-in some cases autonomously-to a landing zone with GPS precision. The drone is pushed out the back of an aircraft or released from a sling load. The wings are folded back during transport but pop out once the drone is airborne. The LG-1K zip at speeds of up to 135 knots and can be programmed to fly to specific waypoints to navigate around rough terrain. On approach to the target, it pops a parachute at 200 feet and comes in for a landing. The company expects it to be compatible with MV-22 and CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, KC-130, C-130, and C-17 transports, and MH-60, UH-60, CH-53, and CH-47 helicopters. The MV-22 Osprey, for example, could carry up to three of the drones, and Aviation Week & Space Technology says a C-130 could carry as many as 18, potentially resupplying many units with a single overflight. The drone, which is made from plywood and aluminum, is designed to be cheap and expendable. While the gliding body itself is extremely low-tech, the drone also incorporates electronics and control systems that allow it to fly by remote control or autonomously to a set of preprogrammed GPS coordinates. According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, Logistics Gliders anticipates the cost of each drone at approximately $4,500 to $11,000. The drone could be used to support ground troops in wars such as Afghanistan and against the Islamic State, delivering supplies to friendly columns patrolling miles from a forward operating base. It would also be useful against near-peer threats such as Russia or China with advanced air defenses. In a major war, U.S. ground forces, particularly those operating on small islands, could find themselves close enough to the enemy to be cut off by air. A resupply aircraft could fly right up to the edge of enemy air defenses and release supply drones that could fly the rest of the way on their own without placing human beings at risk. https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a26885819/marines-plywood-supply-drone/ Back to Top Blockchain Could Revolutionize Part Lifecycle Records Blockchain-secure, tamper-resistant digital records-could revolutionize the way aircraft part histories are recorded and stored, Dan daCosta, the business development lead at air transport IT and telecommunication services firm SITA, said yesterday at the NBAA Business Aircraft Finance, Registration, and Legal Conference. "There are several issues involving the aircraft part lifecycle, including a large number of actors involved and difficulty in tracking and monitoring assets, not to mention the current process is paper-based," he said. Thus, blockchain has the potential to bring more visibility to the aircraft part supply chain, according to daCosta. In short, it would integrate data from manufacturers, distributors, maintainers, operators, and lessors/owners that currently resides in silos, moving it to a shared ledger where no transactions can be changed once recorded. Benefits of blockchain for aircraft parts include standardized maintenance records for aircraft maintenance centers and operators, lower cost of verification for leasing companies, and lower-cost financing for aircraft due to a higher level of trust in the records, said daCosta. Blockchain also has applications for aircraft transactions, with AIC announcing at the NBAA conference that it now has the aviation industry's first aircraft transaction room secured by this emerging technology. https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-03-19/blockchain-could-revolutionize-part-lifecycle-records Back to Top Etihad Airways and Elenium Use Ground-Breaking Technology to Revolutionize the Travel Experience Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, and Elenium, a leading provider of automation technology solutions, will together demonstrate how a newly developed voice activated self-service kiosk, bag drop and boarding gate facility will revolutionise the travel experience by taking facial recognition technology to new heights. The demonstration will take place at Passenger Terminal EXPO (PTE) in London between 26 - 28 March. Using cloud technology, artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision and natural human interfacing, Etihad Airways and Elenium will demonstrate how they will change the way consumers travel by showcasing the airport experience of the future. Jorg Oppermann, VP HUB and Midfield Operations, Etihad Airways said: "With biometric installations increasing across airports globally, Etihad is recognising the growing demand to streamline not just the passenger verification process but to also decrease passenger queues and to increase operational efficiency. "As a leading global airline, Etihad's unique collaboration with Elenium will allow us to use their advanced technologies and expertise to cultivate new ideas for the aviation industry and foster the vision of future travel." A key area of cooperation involves the use of technologies from Elenium, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing subsidiary of Amazon Inc, and Etihad Airways. Together at PTE, the three entities will demonstrate a test concept for a seamless travel experience across the entire customer journey from booking to arrival at the final destination. A new check-in experience Passengers check-in to their flight and register their biometric data on their mobile device before arriving at the airport, reducing queues at the airport. Using AI, new baggage-drop terminals scan and memorise each suitcase placed on the belt and assign it to the guest reservation, removing the need for tagged luggage. Using biometrics, passengers are identified and offered a personalised duty-free shopping experience through a voice interactive display, catered to the individual's interests and needs, and also utilising floor space efficiently. Customer Service Kiosks are available throughout the terminal to assist with airport information, provide ancillary opportunities, and because the kiosks are portable, disruption management. Passengers will board their flight by walking through boarding channels which will automatically validate them without the need for a printed boarding pass - a faster, safer system. Mike Papamichael, VP Technology and Innovation, Etihad Airways said: "The technological vision and strategy is to make the guest journey a frictionless and digitally enabled experience across all channels and touch points at the airport. Etihad's relationship with Elenium builds on this vision and along with our micro services strategy, allows us to co-create and develop innovative self-service and biometric solutions for greater flexibility and a seamless guest experience." Etihad Airways will also white label the Elenium Voyager App which features booking management, passenger check-in, passport validation, timatic auto check, facial biometric enrolment, payment wallet, itinerary management (hotel, transfer, car etc.) and companion functions. Aaron Hornlimann, Elenium Automation's Chief Executive Officer said: "Together with Etihad, we have imagined how artificial intelligence and cloud computing can be used to reinvent the passenger experience by using voice recognition and biometrics. Our vision is for passengers to simply walk through the airport unencumbered by the legacy of kiosk touch screens and the need to scan a boarding pass." The Manchester City Football Club Premier League Trophy will also be on display at the Etihad and Elenium stand on the first day of the Passenger Terminal Expo. Etihad Airways will install the new self-service transfer kiosks in phases at the new Midfield Terminal in Abu Dhabi. https://www.aviationpros.com/airlines/press-release/21072850/etihad-airways-etihad-airways-and-elenium-use-groundbreaking-technology-to-revolutionize-the-travel-experience Back to Top Recent Advancements in Doppler Radar with Dual-Pol Technology [NOAA] One of the most recent advancements in Doppler Radar technology over the last decade is dual-polarization. Polarimetric radar - and polarimetry - improves the accuracy of precipitation estimates, detects aviation hazards, can identify precipitation types, and can spot many other items such as bats or even tornado debris. When it comes to Doppler weather radar, scientists with NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory wrote the book, literally. Publications authored and co-authored by researchers at NSSL and the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies expanded knowledge on radars and provided strategies used by weather forecasters today. After more than three decades, those scientists have done it again. A new book by CIMMS Senior Research Scientist Alexander Ryzhkov, and co-authored by NSSL Senior Scientist Dusan Zrnic, highlights dual-polarization, often called the biggest technological upgrade to Doppler radars since they were first installed. The book, "Radar Polarimetry for Weather Observations," published by Springer Nature, offers an array of information on weather radar polarimetry. In addition to connecting processes responsible for the development and evolution of the bulk of clouds' physical properties, the publication also provides up-to-date polarimetric methodologies. The publication will appeal to practicing radar meteorologists, hydrologists, microphysicists, and modelers who are interested in the bulk properties of hydrometeors and quantification of these with the goals to improve precipitation measurements, understanding of precipitation processes, or model forecasts. http://www.weathernationtv.com/news/recent-advancements-in-doppler-radar-with-dual-pol-technology/ Back to Top China develops new energy battery powered UAV The China-developed new energy battery-powered demonstration unmanned aerial vehicle, known as LQ-H, has conducted a successful maiden flight, according to its developer Wednesday. LQ-H, the technical demonstration UAV, conducted the flight at an airport in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan Province, said its developer Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which is also the developer of China's C919 large passenger airplane. Powered by a hydrogen fuel battery, LQ-H had a smooth flight with all systems in good condition. And its battery power system has been fully validated, COMAC said. COMAC said it was substantial progress for them in terms of exploring new energy aircraft. With a wingspan of 6 meters, LQ-H uses a hydrogen fuel cell for its main power and a lithium battery as supplementary power. The demonstration UAV model uses multiple new technologies, such as 3D printing and compound materials, to lower its weight and pave the way for new-technology application in further manufacturing. Hydrogen energy could be acquired and through various sustainable energy sources such as solar power and wind energy. "It is one of the major research directions of global aviation industry to construct a low-carbon sustainable transportation system by utilizing hydrogen energy," said Yang Zhigang, pre-research chief designer of Beijing Aeronautical Science and Technology Research Institute of COMAC. The LQ-H series technical demonstration aircraft includes four configurations, which feature in fixed and retractable landing gears, and three different empennage types. Through iterative evolution, the endurance of the LQ-H aircraft is expected to reach 24 hours. The LQ-H series was jointly developed by a research team from subsidiaries of COMAC and State Power Corporation Limited, generating professional and technical resources from a domestic university and several companies. More new configurations and technologies of the LQ-H series will be developed through the new energy-powered aircraft as a platform. Moreover, plans for its industrialization development are underway, according to COMAC. https://www.shine.cn/biz/company/1903201571/ Back to Top Elon Musk says SpaceX's first Starship test flight 'hops' are only days away SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk says the first short test flights of the company's massive rocket Starship are "hopefully" this week. "First hops will lift off, but only barely," Musk said on Twitter. Residents near the SpaceX facility in Brownsville, Texas, received warning notices from local officials on Friday. The notice said "SpaceX is planning to conduct testing as soon as the week of March 18," during which "SpaceX will establish a safety zone perimeter in coordination with local law enforcement." In a statement to the Brownsville Herald, SpaceX spokesman James Gleeson said "SpaceX will conduct checkouts of the newly installed ground systems and perform a short static fire test in the days ahead." "Although the prototype is designed to perform suborbital flights, or hops, powered by the SpaceX Raptor engine, the vehicle will be tethered during initial testing and hops will not be visible from offsite," Gleeson said. SpaceX is in the early stages of developing the Starship rocket. Musk said that first "really short" flights will use one of the company's powerful Raptor engines. Starship, with an enormous booster called "Super Heavy," is being built to transport up to 100 people to the moon, Mars and more. Designed to be a fully reusable launch system, the "hopper" version of Starship is key to proving the design and mechanics of a rocket that will unlock Musk's vision of making spaceflight more like air travel. There are "always many issues integrating engine & stage," Musk warned on Twitter. The "first hops will lift off, but only barely." Although it appeared SpaceX was facing a setback when the top half of Starship blew over due to heavy wind in Texas, Musk said SpaceX "decided to skip building a new nosecone for Hopper." "Don't need it," Musk said of the nose cone. "What you see being built is the orbital Starship vehicle." Musk also revealed that SpaceX is "working on regulatory approval" to test and fly Starship from facilities in Texas and Florida. While the prototype is being built in Texas, Musk said SpaceX is going to "be building Starship & Super Heavy simultaneously in both locations." The company's facilities in Florida are the biggest outside of SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles. Musk also showed footage of SpaceX testing hexagonal heat shield tiles for Starship. He said these tiles will help keep the rocket cool during re-entry into the atmosphere because there is "no straight path for hot gas to accelerate through the gaps." https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/19/elon-musk-spacex-first-starship-test-flight-hops-only-days-away.html Curt Lewis