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Tethers Unlimited lays off 20 percent of staff

Rob Hoyt
Robert Hoyt is the co-founder and CEO of Tethers Unlimited Inc. (TUI via YouTube)

Bothell, Wash.-based Tethers Unlimited Inc. has laid off about 20 percent of its workforce due to a cash crunch brought on by the partial government shutdown, the company’s CEO says.

Tethers Unlimited snared an impressive lineup of contracts from NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, for work on innovative spacecraft thruster systems and space-based fabrication systems. But it can’t get paid for the work it’s done over the past three months, CEO Rob Hoyt told GeekWire today in an email.

Hoyt expects commercial contracts to keep the company afloat during the shutdown, which has now gone into its fourth week. But he said the decision to cut back on staff was “really painful and disheartening.” In his email, he decried what he called a game of “Russian roulette with the American economy.”

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Government shutdown puts a damper on science

Welcome sign at AAS
Arata Expositions’ Jason Edwards puts down a “Welcome” sign for the American Astronomical Society’s winter meeting at the Seattle Convention Center. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

It’s been called the “Super Bowl of Astronomy,” but when the American Astronomical Society’s winter meeting plays out in Seattle this week, some of the stars won’t be taking the field.

The AAS meeting is just one of the scientific endeavors diminished by the partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., which entered its 17th day today.

NASA representatives, and researchers whose travel would typically be funded by NASA, have had to cancel their plans to be in Seattle due to the tiff involving the Trump administration and Republicans on one side, and Democrats on the other.

The shutdown affects only a quarter of the federal government — which means that the Defense Department and the Energy Department can continue research and development activities. Work continues as well at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at the National Institutes of Health.

But most employees at NASA as well as at the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are on furlough.

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After 2-year gap, White House has a science chief

Kelvin Droegemeier
University of Oklahoma meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier addresses a meeting of the National Science Board in 2016. (NSF Photo)

Nearly two years after taking office, President Donald Trump now has a Senate-confirmed science adviser: Kelvin Droegemeier, a meteorologist from the University of Oklahoma who’s gotten good reviews from climate advocates as well as climate deniers.

Trump chose Droegemeier to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in late July, but it took until Wednesday for the Senate to confirm the appointment on a voice vote. That was the last full day of the 115th Congress, and if the confirmation had been put off a day longer, the process would have had to start over.

Droegemeier is a former vice chair of the National Science Board, the oversight body of the National Science Foundation, and has long been active on national research policy.

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Trump authorizes revival of U.S. Space Command

Vice President Mike Pence
Vice President Mike Pence delivers remarks at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (White House via YouTube)

President Donald Trump today authorized the Pentagon to set up the U.S. Space Command as its own combatant command, in preparation for creating a Space Force as a separate branch of the military.

The authorization for the Space Command came in the form of a memorandum that doesn’t require congressional approval. Creating the Space Force, however, is dependent on action in Congress — and with Democrats taking charge of the House, there’s a chance that the force may take a form different from what the White House originally envisioned.

Cost estimates for setting up a Space Force as the first branch of the military to be created since the Air Force’s birth in 1947 range from a few billion dollars to as much as $13 billion. Some policymakers favor less expensive alternatives — such as a Space Corps that would be created within Air Force, just as the Marine Corps was created under the Navy’s administrative aegis.

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White House officials size up tech transformation

Chris Liddell
Chris Liddell, White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, discusses tech policy during a Washington Post mini-conference.

In the wake of Nov. 6’s power-shifting midterm elections, the White House plans to stay the course in tech policy and may even work with Democrats on beefing up the nation’s broadband infrastructure, a trio of Trump administration officials said today.

“We’re on the biggest IT transformation of all time,” said Chris Liddell, a former Microsoft executive who currently serves as White House deputy chief of staff for policy coordination. “I’ve worked inside the private sector for most of my life, for large companies, 100,000 people or so, but this is for literally millions of people. That’s a 10-year journey. That really hasn’t changed as a result of Tuesday.”

Liddell and two other White House officials — Abigail Slater, special assistant to the president on technology, telecom and cybersecurity policy; and Michael Kratsios, deputy U.S. chief technology officer — sized up the road ahead at Technology 202, a D.C. mini-conference presented by The Washington Post.

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Battleground shifts in fight over fake news

National Guard at work
Staff Sgt. Wiggin Bernadotte, a cyber warfare operator in the Washington Air National Guard’s 262nd Cyberspace Operations Squadron, works with Capt. Benjamin Kolar, a cyberspace operations officer in the 262nd, on an electrical substation simulator. The exercise is part of the Air National Guard’s effort to help secure and protect voting systems on Election Day. (JBLM / DVIDS / DOD Photo / Paul Rider)

Facebook and Twitter have been cracking down on political disinformation during the current election cycle, but there are signs that the fight against fake news has spread to new battlefields, ranging from LinkedIn to text messages.

In Washington state, the Air National Guard has called out its cyberspace operations unit to protect the voting system. And the battle won’t end when the votes are tallied.

“Be aware of the ‘voter fraud’ debate that will inevitably follow the election — no matter the results,” University of Washington information scientist Jevin West, one of the instructors for a “Calling B.S.” class that went viral, told GeekWire in an Election Day email.

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Seattle space leaders link up with lawmakers

Aerojet tour
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash, get a tour of Aerojet Rocketdyne’s campus in Redmond, Wash., from the facility’s general manager, Ken Young. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

REDMOND, Wash. — One of Congress’ leading Democrats, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, met with leaders of the Seattle area’s space community today to make a pitch for his “Make It in America” campaign. They pitched back with an idea of their own: “Test It in Washington State.”

The Puget Sound region is quickly becoming known as a hub for space ventures such as Blue Origin, founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos; and Stratolaunch Systems, created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. SpaceX, Spaceflight Industries and LeoStella have a growing presence here as well.

Predating them all is Aerojet Rocketdyne, which traces its lineage in Redmond back to the 1960s and has built thrusters for a wide spectrum of NASA spacecraft — including the Mars Insight lander that’s due to touch down on the Red Planet next month.

Washington state’s space industry currently generates $1.8 billion worth of economic activity annually, according to a recently published report. But during today’s session at Aerojet’s Redmond facility, headlined by Hoyer as well as Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., several attendees noted that Washington is lagging behind other states such as California, Texas and Florida in one big area.

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White House issues quantum computing strategy

Quantum summit
A White House summit on quantum information science brings together Jake Taylor of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, France Cordova of the National Science Foundation, Paul Dabbar of the U.S. Energy Department, Walter Copan of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Mike Griffin of the Defense Department. (White House / OSTP Photo via Twitter)

Federal officials and industry leaders — including representatives from Microsoft and Google — met today at a White House summit to spark new initiatives in quantum information science.

Among the recommendations contained in a newly released strategic overview: setting up a U.S. Quantum Consortium, modeled after past efforts such as the non-profit, industry-led Semiconductor Research Corp.; and establishing a set of Grand Challenges to focus quantum computing research.

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Online-only voting? Don’t do it, experts say

Electronic voting
Experts say electronic voting systems need to generate a voter-verifiable paper audit trail. (U.S. State Dept. Photo)

Chastened by Russian interference and hacking attempts in the 2016 election, academic experts on voting technology say electronic voting machines that don’t leave a paper trail should be phased out as soon as possible.

“Every effort should be made to use human-readable paper ballots in the 2018 federal election,” the experts write in a report issued today by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. “All local, state and federal elections should be conducted using human-readable paper ballots by the 2020 presidential election.”

That’s already the case for Washington, Oregon and Colorado, where mail-only voting has become the norm. (The report notes that “vote-by-mail” is something of a misnomer, since most ballots are still returned by hand. “Ballot delivery by mail” comes closer to the mark.)

Washington’s election officials have implemented the report’s top recommendation for mail-voting systems: giving voters an easy way to check whether their ballot has been sent, and where their returned ballot is in the system. The “MyVote” websitelinks to online ballot trackers as well as voter registration information.

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Tech titan Paul Allen gives $100,000 to GOP causes

Paul Allen
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is known for his philanthropic contributions to causes such as the University of Washington – and now he’s in the spotlight for political contributions as well. (GeekWire Photo)

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has made his largest-ever contribution to congressional candidates in the form of a $100,000 donation to the Republicans’ “Protect the House” political action committee.

Allen’s contribution, which was made in June and came to light today in a Seattle Times report, could bring further attention to the role of tech leaders in the crucial midterm congressional campaign.

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