Solar Sail to Launch in 2010 (Source: USA Today)
Setting sail for space, a "solar sail" project announced Monday aims to observe storms on the sun. The Planetary Society, a space exploration advocacy group founded by Carl Sagan, outlined its plans for the 2010 launch of its first solar sail. Lightsail-1 will use the pressure of the solar wind to navigate in space. In 2005, a prototype Planetary Society solar sail crashed due to the failure of a Russian launch rocket. The society plans to put the first solar sail into orbit almost 500 miles above Earth to test controlling its four triangular sails, which will be attached to lightweight "nanosat" spacecraft. Two follow-on missions will travel to sun-circling orbits and monitor space for solar storms. (11/9)
Investment in Commercial Spaceflight Grows to $1.46 Billion (Source: CSF)
Total investment in the commercial human spaceflight sector has risen by 20% since January 2008, reaching a cumulative total of $1.46 billion, according to a new extensive study performed by the Tauri Group and commissioned by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Revenues and deposits for commercial human spaceflight services, hardware, and support services has also grown, reaching a total of $261 million for the year 2008. Click here for more information. (11/9)
High Winds Delay Delta-4 Launch (Source: Florida Today)
The planned Nov. 19 launch of a Delta IV rocket and a military communications satellite is being delayed because high winds at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport prevented the mating of the spacecraft to the launch vehicle. Strict weather rules prohibit crane operators from lifting spacecraft and then carrying out a mating operations when winds exceed 20 knots. Winds Sunday and Monday were above that limit. A new launch date probably won't be established until the spacecraft is returned to the pad. A late November launch is still a possibility. (11/9)
Masten Building On X-Prize (Source: Aviation Week)
Masten Space Systems, fresh from a million-dollar win in the NASA-sponsored Lunar Lander X-Prize Challenge, hopes to use its vertical-takeoff-and-landing rocket technology to launch a commercial enterprise by the middle of next year. The next steps, Masten said, will be to devise an aeroshell to permit faster flight and - eventually - re-entry, and to build a new engine that can deliver 2,500 pounds of thrust, versus the 750-pound rating on the Xoie engine. (11/9)
Extraterrestrial Rafting: Hunting Off-World Sea Life (Source: New Scientist)
If life is to be found beyond our home planet, then our closest encounters with it may come in the dark abyss of some extraterrestrial sea. For Earth is certainly not the only ocean-girdled world in our solar system. As many as five moons of Jupiter and Saturn are now thought to hide seas beneath their icy crusts. To find out more about these worlds and their hidden oceans, two ambitious voyages are now taking shape. About a decade from now, if all goes to plan, the first mission will send a pair of probes to explore Jupiter's satellites. They will concentrate on giant Ganymede and pale Europa, gauging the depths of the oceans that almost certainly lie within them.
A few years later, an even more audacious mission will head towards Saturn to sniff the polar sea spray of its snow-white moon Enceladus. It will also visit Titan, which has perhaps the most astonishing extraterrestrial landscape in our solar system. To explore this giant moon, the spacecraft will send out two seemingly antique contraptions: a hot-air balloon to fly over the deserts and mountains, and a boat that will float on a sea of liquid hydrocarbons. (11/9)
Russia's Energia Doubles Spacecraft Production (Source: Space Daily)
Russia's space corporation Energia is doubling production of manned spacecraft, Energia's president said on Monday. Vitaly Lopota said production of space freighters would increase by 50%. He did not say what the current production levels were or how many spacecraft would be built. Nor did he offer a timeframe. He also said Russia's Moon and Mars mission projects were far more cost-effective than similar U.S. projects. "We can achieve more with less money," he said, adding that NASA had taken an interest in Russian projects. (11/9)
NASA Awards Institutional Support Services Contract for KSC (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected C&C International Computers and Consultants Inc. of Hollywood, Fla., to provide institutional support services at the agency's Kennedy Space Center. The contract begins Dec. 1 with a 10-month base period and two one-year option periods. The maximum potential value of the contract is approximately $31.5 million, which is comprised of an $11.5-million base value and $10 million for each one-year option.
C&C International Computers and Consultants will provide administrative support services personnel including accountants, accounting clerks, administrative assistants, personnel assistants, procurement specialists and analysts, program analysts, resource analysts, secretaries and general clerks. Programs supported under the contract include the space shuttle, International Space Station, Constellation, launch services, engineering, external relations and the Office of the Center Director. (11/9)
Augustine's Questionable Adjective (Source: Space Review)
A key element of the Augustine Committee's report was its emphasis on commercial providers to help support NASA's space exploration efforts. Taylor Dinerman cautions that may be too much to ask the nascent NewSpace industry at this stage in its development. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1507/1 to view the article. (11/9)
A Wild Finish for the Lunar Lander Challenge (Source: Space Review)
The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge wrapped up at the end of October with the remaining prize money awarded to two teams. Jeff Foust reports on the conclusion of the competition, a bit of controversy, and future plans. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1506/1 to view the article. (11/9)
Losing Gravity (Source: Space Review)
The short-lived TV series "Defying Gravity" went off the air before American viewers could see all 13 episodes. Dwayne Day recounts what you missed and what the series' failure says about public interest in space exploration. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1505/1 to view the article. (11/9)
SpaceX Hires Former Air Force Official for Florida Launch Operations (Source: SpaceX)
SpaceX announces that Colonel Scott Henderson has joined the company. He will serve as the director of Mission Assurance and Integration and will also handle Florida external relations, assisting with state and local governmental, customer and media relations. Henderson will primarily support former astronaut Ken Bowersox, vice president of SpaceX’s Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance office, working out of the company’s Florida office. (11/9)
SpaceX Dragon Would Bring Big Savings for NASA on ISS Crew Transport (Source: Examiner)
A manned flight to the ISS aboard a Soyuz currently costs about $50 million. According to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, "a seat onboard the Dragon capsule launched by the Falcon 9 rocket and would cost less than $20 million and it is 100% manufactured and launched in the United States. We are estimating that it would create well in excess of a 1000 high quality jobs at Cape Canaveral and an equivalent number in California and Texas, where we do our manufacturing and testing. Moreover, the total cost would only be $1.5 billion, so taxpayers would save $2 billion." (11/9)
Northrop Sells TASC Unit for $1.65 Billion (Source: AP)
Northrop Grumman said Sunday it agreed to sell its advisory services business TASC Inc. to private equity firm General Atlantic LLC and affiliates of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for $1.65 billion in cash. The No. 2 defense contractor says it will use the proceeds to fund a new $1.1 billion increase to its stock buyback program. TASC, based in Chantilly, Va., serves intelligence, defense and civil agencies. It has about 5,000 employees and is expected to record 2009 revenue of $1.6 billion. It is part of Northrop's information systems sector. (11/9)
Nelson Talks Shuttle Extension, Workforce Retention (Source: Florida Today)
Sen. Bill Nelson is not lobbying specifically for flying the shuttle longer, but rather for the president to take the recommendation of his blue-ribbon panel and increase NASA's budget long-term. That would help speed development of whatever replacement is chosen. The senator reinforced that the White House panel had cited safety as a potential drawback of extending the shuttle program.
Nelson added the White House and Congress must "commit to help the workforce during the disruption" between retirement of the shuttles in 2010 or 2011 and the ramp-up toward the replacement system's first flights. Click here to view the interview. (11/9)
MP ‘Mystified’ by Virgin Comments on UK Space Flights (Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal)
Moray MP Angus Robertson last night said he was “mystified” by Virgin Galactic’s claims that British laws must be changed before Moray can be considered as Europe’s international space station base. The company plans to offer space tourism flights to the paying public within five years and Lossiemouth’s RAF base is their first UK choice as a spaceport. Virgin Galactic’s president Will Whitehorn this weekend warned Britain “has no legislation to allow us to fly here – there is no regulatory authority”. He added: “The Outer Space Act, which Britain created in 1986, didn't really envisage a system like this.
Mr. Robertson said he had researched the issue at the House of Commons library and had met with Lord Drayson, the UK’s science minister. Mr Robertson said: “He told me that he did not see there being any legal impediments to commercial space flight.” Mr Robertson added that he was confident, however, that any existing challenges would not be “insurmountable”. (11/9)
November 8 News Items
Embry-Riddle Students Aim for Spot on NASA Zero-G Mission (Source: Prescott (AZ) Daily Courier)
A team of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students is hoping that NASA officials will select their senior project for a flight on the "Weightless Wonder" microgravity aircraft. As part of their senior preliminary design course, the students' project was to develop a micro satellite system and an algorithm to measure the affect of torque on the mass moment of inertia (movement).
If successful, team member Brittany Wells said, "The program should tell us if a spacecraft will turn or move when you apply torque. The idea is that if you can determine the effect of torque as it is changing, you can point the satellite better." The students are building a small micro satellite to test their theory. They must test their project under condition similar to those in space. NASA officials will announce the four university projects accepted for free-float at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in June or July. (11/8)
Russian Rocket Ready to Launch Space Station Module (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
A Soyuz rocket topped with the new Poisk module for the International Space Station took a train ride to historic Launch Pad No. 1 at the Baikonur spaceport on Sunday morning, two days before the new component begins its trek to the orbiting complex. (11/8)
Three November Launches Upcoming at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SPACErePORT)
Three launches are upcoming before the end of November at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. A commercial Atlas-5 mission lifts off on Nov. 14 at 12:48 a.m. A NASA Space Shuttle mission is on tap for Nov. 16 at 2:28 p.m. And a military Delta-4 mission is planned for Nov. 19 at 7:45 p.m. (11/8)
Kepler’s Search for Small Worlds Hampered by Noisy Electronics (Source: Space News)
In spite of electronic components that are creating extraneous noise on board the Kepler space telescope, NASA officials are confident the mission will be able by 2011 to either detect Earth-size planets or reveal that those planets are uncommon. A Kepler principal investigator at the NASA Ames Research Center, told members of the NASA Advisory Council that noise produced by three of the 42 amplifiers used to boost signals from the telescope’s charge-coupled devices was creating image artifacts, or features present in the Kepler data sets that reflect noise rather than an accurate picture of the stars. (11/8)
NASA Updated Guidelines for Aerospace Vehicle Development (Source: CSA)
NASA has updated guidelines and information regarding the natural environment for altitudes between the surface of the Earth and 90 km altitude for the principal NASA aerospace vehicle development, operational, and launch locations and associated local and worldwide geographical areas. Atmospheric phenomena play a significant role in the design and operation of aerospace vehicles and in the integrity of aerospace systems and elements. The terrestrial environment design criteria guidelines given in this handbook are based on statistics and models of atmospheric and climatic phenomena relative to various aerospace design, development, and operational issues. Click here to view the guidelines document. (11/8)
Zero-G Flight Carries Italian Crew from Florida (Source: SPACErePORT)
Zero-Gravity Corp. flew a weightless mission for tourists from the Space Coast Regional Airport on Saturday. The sold-out flight included a team from Italy's SpaceLand group, which featured European media coverage. The group held an underwater training session at a nearby resort pool. (11/8)
Virgin: Law Change Needed for Scotland Spaceflight (Source: BBC)
A change in the law is needed before Scotland can be considered as a launch site for commercial space flights, the head of Virgin Galactic has said. The firm's president Will Whitehorn said locations in Scotland and Sweden were being considered as bases for Virgin's European operations. But he said UK laws would have to be amended to allow flights to take place. Mr Whitehorn said UK ministers and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was currently looking at the issue.
Virgin Galactic expects to start taking fare-paying passengers on short space hops in the next few years, but claims current rules would prevent launches from the UK. (11/8)
China to Launch French-Made Communications Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China will launch a French-made communications satellite for the Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holding Limited in the first half of 2012. A contract for the launch service was signed in Beijing Sunday. The satellite, dubbed APTSTAR-7 and made by the Thales Alenia Space, will be sent into space by China's Long March 3B/E carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China, according to a statement issued by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC). (11/8)
When E.T. Phones the Pope (Source: Washinton Post)
A little more than a half-mile from the Vatican, in a square called Campo de' Fiori, stands a large statue of a brooding monk. Few of the shoppers and tourists wandering through the fruit-and-vegetable market below may know his story; he is Giordano Bruno, a Renaissance philosopher, writer and free-thinker who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600. Among his many heresies was his belief in a "plurality of worlds" -- in extraterrestrial life, in aliens.
He might take satisfaction in knowing that this week the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding its first major conference on astrobiology, the new science that seeks to find life elsewhere in the cosmos and to understand how it began on Earth. Convened on private Vatican grounds in the elegant Casina Pio IV, formerly the pope's villa, the unlikely gathering of prominent scientists and religious leaders shows that some of the most tradition-bound faiths are seriously contemplating the possibility that life exists in myriad forms beyond this planet. Astrobiology has arrived, and religious and social institutions -- even the Vatican -- are taking note. (11/8)
South Korean Launch Failure Blamed on Indigenous Fairing (Source: Korea Herald)
An independent panel — tasked with finding the cause of the partial failure of Korea’s first rocket launch — confirmed yesterday that problems in the nose-fairing caused the satellite to veer off course. Based on its analysis of the data collected during the liftoff and flight of the two-stage rocket, the panel said one of the two fairings failed to separate, which prevented the satellite from gaining sufficient velocity to reach the intended orbit.
Other parts, such as engines, functioned normally and the separation of the satellite proceeded properly after the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, or Naro, blasted off on Aug. 25 in the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province, the panel said. The fairing set was attached to the second-stage rocket of the KSLV-1 to cover and protect a 100-kilogram experimental satellite. The fairing was one the rocket's components that was built by South Korea. Others were provided by Russia. (11/6)
Ben Bova: The "Cannonization" of Space Launches (Source: Naples News)
Rockets are very inefficient, and space travel is expensive. It costs upwards of $10,000 per pound to launch payloads into orbit around the Earth. A private firm called Quicklaunch Inc., however, is developing a high-tech cannon that will — company officials believe — launch small, unmanned spacecraft into orbit for a few hundred dollars per pound, rather than the $10,000 per pound, or more, that rockets cost. Shades of Jules Verne!
Quicklaunch’s personnel have been working on high-velocity gas-driven cannons for space launches for more than 30 years. One of the company’s founders is John W. Hunter, who has worked on this daring technology with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Click here to view the article. (11/8)
Japan Serious About Space Solar Power Beaming (Source: AFP)
It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves. The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades. With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.
But Japan's boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres (square miles) in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth's atmosphere. "Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming," researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report. (11/8)
A team of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students is hoping that NASA officials will select their senior project for a flight on the "Weightless Wonder" microgravity aircraft. As part of their senior preliminary design course, the students' project was to develop a micro satellite system and an algorithm to measure the affect of torque on the mass moment of inertia (movement).
If successful, team member Brittany Wells said, "The program should tell us if a spacecraft will turn or move when you apply torque. The idea is that if you can determine the effect of torque as it is changing, you can point the satellite better." The students are building a small micro satellite to test their theory. They must test their project under condition similar to those in space. NASA officials will announce the four university projects accepted for free-float at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in June or July. (11/8)
Russian Rocket Ready to Launch Space Station Module (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
A Soyuz rocket topped with the new Poisk module for the International Space Station took a train ride to historic Launch Pad No. 1 at the Baikonur spaceport on Sunday morning, two days before the new component begins its trek to the orbiting complex. (11/8)
Three November Launches Upcoming at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SPACErePORT)
Three launches are upcoming before the end of November at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. A commercial Atlas-5 mission lifts off on Nov. 14 at 12:48 a.m. A NASA Space Shuttle mission is on tap for Nov. 16 at 2:28 p.m. And a military Delta-4 mission is planned for Nov. 19 at 7:45 p.m. (11/8)
Kepler’s Search for Small Worlds Hampered by Noisy Electronics (Source: Space News)
In spite of electronic components that are creating extraneous noise on board the Kepler space telescope, NASA officials are confident the mission will be able by 2011 to either detect Earth-size planets or reveal that those planets are uncommon. A Kepler principal investigator at the NASA Ames Research Center, told members of the NASA Advisory Council that noise produced by three of the 42 amplifiers used to boost signals from the telescope’s charge-coupled devices was creating image artifacts, or features present in the Kepler data sets that reflect noise rather than an accurate picture of the stars. (11/8)
NASA Updated Guidelines for Aerospace Vehicle Development (Source: CSA)
NASA has updated guidelines and information regarding the natural environment for altitudes between the surface of the Earth and 90 km altitude for the principal NASA aerospace vehicle development, operational, and launch locations and associated local and worldwide geographical areas. Atmospheric phenomena play a significant role in the design and operation of aerospace vehicles and in the integrity of aerospace systems and elements. The terrestrial environment design criteria guidelines given in this handbook are based on statistics and models of atmospheric and climatic phenomena relative to various aerospace design, development, and operational issues. Click here to view the guidelines document. (11/8)
Zero-G Flight Carries Italian Crew from Florida (Source: SPACErePORT)
Zero-Gravity Corp. flew a weightless mission for tourists from the Space Coast Regional Airport on Saturday. The sold-out flight included a team from Italy's SpaceLand group, which featured European media coverage. The group held an underwater training session at a nearby resort pool. (11/8)
Virgin: Law Change Needed for Scotland Spaceflight (Source: BBC)
A change in the law is needed before Scotland can be considered as a launch site for commercial space flights, the head of Virgin Galactic has said. The firm's president Will Whitehorn said locations in Scotland and Sweden were being considered as bases for Virgin's European operations. But he said UK laws would have to be amended to allow flights to take place. Mr Whitehorn said UK ministers and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) was currently looking at the issue.
Virgin Galactic expects to start taking fare-paying passengers on short space hops in the next few years, but claims current rules would prevent launches from the UK. (11/8)
China to Launch French-Made Communications Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China will launch a French-made communications satellite for the Hong Kong-based APT Satellite Holding Limited in the first half of 2012. A contract for the launch service was signed in Beijing Sunday. The satellite, dubbed APTSTAR-7 and made by the Thales Alenia Space, will be sent into space by China's Long March 3B/E carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern China, according to a statement issued by the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC). (11/8)
When E.T. Phones the Pope (Source: Washinton Post)
A little more than a half-mile from the Vatican, in a square called Campo de' Fiori, stands a large statue of a brooding monk. Few of the shoppers and tourists wandering through the fruit-and-vegetable market below may know his story; he is Giordano Bruno, a Renaissance philosopher, writer and free-thinker who was burned at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600. Among his many heresies was his belief in a "plurality of worlds" -- in extraterrestrial life, in aliens.
He might take satisfaction in knowing that this week the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences is holding its first major conference on astrobiology, the new science that seeks to find life elsewhere in the cosmos and to understand how it began on Earth. Convened on private Vatican grounds in the elegant Casina Pio IV, formerly the pope's villa, the unlikely gathering of prominent scientists and religious leaders shows that some of the most tradition-bound faiths are seriously contemplating the possibility that life exists in myriad forms beyond this planet. Astrobiology has arrived, and religious and social institutions -- even the Vatican -- are taking note. (11/8)
South Korean Launch Failure Blamed on Indigenous Fairing (Source: Korea Herald)
An independent panel — tasked with finding the cause of the partial failure of Korea’s first rocket launch — confirmed yesterday that problems in the nose-fairing caused the satellite to veer off course. Based on its analysis of the data collected during the liftoff and flight of the two-stage rocket, the panel said one of the two fairings failed to separate, which prevented the satellite from gaining sufficient velocity to reach the intended orbit.
Other parts, such as engines, functioned normally and the separation of the satellite proceeded properly after the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, or Naro, blasted off on Aug. 25 in the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province, the panel said. The fairing set was attached to the second-stage rocket of the KSLV-1 to cover and protect a 100-kilogram experimental satellite. The fairing was one the rocket's components that was built by South Korea. Others were provided by Russia. (11/6)
Ben Bova: The "Cannonization" of Space Launches (Source: Naples News)
Rockets are very inefficient, and space travel is expensive. It costs upwards of $10,000 per pound to launch payloads into orbit around the Earth. A private firm called Quicklaunch Inc., however, is developing a high-tech cannon that will — company officials believe — launch small, unmanned spacecraft into orbit for a few hundred dollars per pound, rather than the $10,000 per pound, or more, that rockets cost. Shades of Jules Verne!
Quicklaunch’s personnel have been working on high-velocity gas-driven cannons for space launches for more than 30 years. One of the company’s founders is John W. Hunter, who has worked on this daring technology with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Click here to view the article. (11/8)
Japan Serious About Space Solar Power Beaming (Source: AFP)
It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but Japan's space agency is dead serious: by 2030 it wants to collect solar power in space and zap it down to Earth, using laser beams or microwaves. The government has just picked a group of companies and a team of researchers tasked with turning the ambitious, multi-billion-dollar dream of unlimited clean energy into reality in coming decades. With few energy resources of its own and heavily reliant on oil imports, Japan has long been a leader in solar and other renewable energies and this year set ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.
But Japan's boldest plan to date is the Space Solar Power System (SSPS), in which arrays of photovoltaic dishes several square kilometres (square miles) in size would hover in geostationary orbit outside the Earth's atmosphere. "Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming," researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, one of the project participants, wrote in a report. (11/8)
November 7 News Items
Signature of Antimatter Detected in Lightning (Source: Science News)
Designed to scan the heavens thousands to billions of light-years beyond the solar system for gamma rays, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has also picked up a shocking vibe from Earth. During its first 14 months of operation, the flying observatory has detected 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with terrestrial storms — and some of those flashes have contained a surprising signature of antimatter.
During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. (11/7)
Space Markets Post Strong Growth, Defy Economic Crisis (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Markets for commercial communications satellites, Earth observation spacecraft and their launchers, all remarkably unaffected by the global economic crisis, continue to soar toward yearly double digit growth, generating billions in annual revenues.
Assessments by global market analysis firms are in close agreement about growth across 2008-2009, and for an upbeat picture to continue into 2010 and beyond. Companies out with new forecasts include Northern Sky Research, Euroconsult, Futron and Forecast International.
The latest payload numbers are being equaled on the launcher side. "The world market for expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) is [also] headed for a considerable market upturn," said John Edwards, senior analysts at Forecast International in comments about that firm's new payload forecast out to 2017. (11/7)
Plumes on Saturn's Moon May be a Sign of Life (Source: USA Today)
Saturn's geyser-spewing moon, Enceladus — visited by the international Cassini spacecraft on its closest flyby this week— presents planetary scientists with a geophysical locked-room mystery. How does something buried inside an ice ball only 311 miles wide, provide the pop to propel a plume 600 miles out of the moon's south pole?
"The biggest puzzle with Enceladus is where is the heat source," says Cassini scientist Linda Spilker of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. "This tiny moon 'should' be frozen over like the others orbiting Saturn." And there is one even more compelling question.
"Is it possible for life to exist on Enceladus, the tiny icy satellite of Saturn," asked planetary scientists. Life on Enceladus, hidden in an interior lake or ocean suspected under its ice, has consumed planetary researchers since 2005, when Cassini first spotted the plume. Click here to view the article. (11/7)
ISS Mission Control Gives All Clear for Orbital Debris Threat (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Ongoing analysis of the trajectory of a piece of space junk that was believed to pose a possible threat to the International Space Station shows the debris will not pass close enough to the lab complex to force the crew to seek refuge in their Soyuz lifeboats, a NASA official said late Friday. (11/7)
Designed to scan the heavens thousands to billions of light-years beyond the solar system for gamma rays, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has also picked up a shocking vibe from Earth. During its first 14 months of operation, the flying observatory has detected 17 gamma-ray flashes associated with terrestrial storms — and some of those flashes have contained a surprising signature of antimatter.
During two recent lightning storms, Fermi recorded gamma-ray emissions of a particular energy that could have been produced only by the decay of energetic positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons. The observations are the first of their kind for lightning storms. (11/7)
Space Markets Post Strong Growth, Defy Economic Crisis (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Markets for commercial communications satellites, Earth observation spacecraft and their launchers, all remarkably unaffected by the global economic crisis, continue to soar toward yearly double digit growth, generating billions in annual revenues.
Assessments by global market analysis firms are in close agreement about growth across 2008-2009, and for an upbeat picture to continue into 2010 and beyond. Companies out with new forecasts include Northern Sky Research, Euroconsult, Futron and Forecast International.
The latest payload numbers are being equaled on the launcher side. "The world market for expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) is [also] headed for a considerable market upturn," said John Edwards, senior analysts at Forecast International in comments about that firm's new payload forecast out to 2017. (11/7)
Plumes on Saturn's Moon May be a Sign of Life (Source: USA Today)
Saturn's geyser-spewing moon, Enceladus — visited by the international Cassini spacecraft on its closest flyby this week— presents planetary scientists with a geophysical locked-room mystery. How does something buried inside an ice ball only 311 miles wide, provide the pop to propel a plume 600 miles out of the moon's south pole?
"The biggest puzzle with Enceladus is where is the heat source," says Cassini scientist Linda Spilker of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission. "This tiny moon 'should' be frozen over like the others orbiting Saturn." And there is one even more compelling question.
"Is it possible for life to exist on Enceladus, the tiny icy satellite of Saturn," asked planetary scientists. Life on Enceladus, hidden in an interior lake or ocean suspected under its ice, has consumed planetary researchers since 2005, when Cassini first spotted the plume. Click here to view the article. (11/7)
ISS Mission Control Gives All Clear for Orbital Debris Threat (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Ongoing analysis of the trajectory of a piece of space junk that was believed to pose a possible threat to the International Space Station shows the debris will not pass close enough to the lab complex to force the crew to seek refuge in their Soyuz lifeboats, a NASA official said late Friday. (11/7)
November 6 News Items
Bolden: Flexible Path Approach is “Attractive to Everybody” (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says sending astronauts to various solar system destinations instead of focusing exclusively on the Moon is an “attractive” option that could allow the U.S. space agency to phase in promising new technologies while inspiring the American public at regular intervals along the way.
“You utilize lunar exploration, utilize visits to asteroids, whether it’s robotic or human,” Bolden said. “That’s what makes it attractive to everybody,” he said. “That’s the one good thing about it. It is not a lunar program, and it’s not a Mars program. It allows you to go to different destinations as you see the capabilities arise.” (11/6)
Air Force To Study Using Alternative SBIRS Sensor (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force intends to hire Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems to study the feasibility of incorporating a next-generation missile warning sensor into the service’s Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). Raytheon started work in 2006 on an experimental missile warning sensor for the Air Force under a program now called the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance system (3GIRS). The company was awarded a $46 million contract to upgrade the sensor to a fully flight-qualified payload. (11/6)
Huntsville Mayor Rallies Support for Ares I (Source: Huntsville Times)
Mayor Tommy Battle used his second "State of the City" address Thursday to plug the embattled Ares I rocket. Speaking to a sellout crowd of 1,300 people at the Von Braun Center's North Hall, Battle said the Rocket City has to find a way to keep the Marshall Space Flight Center-managed program alive.
Battle drew loud applause when he said Huntsville needs to "convince Congress, convince the White House that we have the finest pool of intelligence and technologically advanced people that have ever been on earth in the business of space. "If you ever let that pool disperse," he said, "you'll never get it back." (11/6)
NASA COTS Companies Benefit from Stimulus Aid (Source: Flight Global)
Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are to benefit from millions of dollars more than originally agreed under their NASA-funded Commercial Transportation Space Act agreements. NASA is spending $24 million on launch and test infrastructure, including at its Wallops flight facility where Orbital will launch its Taurus II rocket and the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, where SpaceX will operate its Falcon 9 booster. NASA declines to say how much investment the two companies' launch sites are getting because it "may be procurement sensitive information".
The funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and some of the $24 million is being spent on John C Stennis Center testing facilities. Orbital could not provide investment figures for its site and construction company RS&H, which has won a Wallops contract, is prohibited from giving details. However, sources close to SpaceX say that Kennedy will get around $1 million of ARRA funds and that company's complex will gain improvements. (11/6)
Stadd Gets House Arrest and Probation (Source: Space News)
Former NASA Chief of Staff Courtney Stadd, convicted in August of lying to U.S. government ethics officials and inappropriately steering agency funds to a consulting client, was sentenced to three years probation, six months of home confinement Nov. 6 and fined $2,500. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer before a courtroom packed with many of Stadd’s friends and aerospace industry colleagues. Stadd had been facing up to 15 years in prison, but during the sentencing hearing the prosecutors asked for only a one-year term. (11/6)
Google Unveils Protocol for Interplanetary Internet (Source: WIRED)
Vint Cerf, Google's internet evangelist, has unveiled a new protocol intended to power an interplanetary internet. The Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol emerged from work first started in 1998 in partnership with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The initial goal was to modify the ubiquitous Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to facilitate robust communications between celestial bodies and satellites. They were forced to acknowledge that TCP simply couldn't cut the mustard, with massive delay and data loss caused by celestial motion rendering TCP useless.
"There was a little problem called the speed of light," joked a typically playful Cerf, as he outlined the idea to the OpenMobileSummit conference in San Francisco. "When Earth and Mars are closest, we're 35 million miles apart, and it's a three and a half minute trip one way, seven minutes for a round trip. Then when we're farthest apart, we're 235 million miles – 20 minutes one way, 40 minutes round trip."
The core issue is that TCP assumes a continuous (and fairly reliable) connection. DTN makes no such assumptions, requiring each node to buffer all of its packets until a stable connection can be established. Whereas TCP will repeatedly attempt to send packets until they are successfully acknowledged, DTN will automatically find a destination node with a reliable connection, and then send its payload just once. Given the latency of space communications and the minimal power restrictions placed upon satellites, DTNs approach seems prudent. (11/6)
Air Force Recruitment Video Focuses on Space Collision Avoidance (Source: USAF)
An Air Force commercial highlighting the service's role in protecting satellite and other space assets shows what happens when two pieces of space junk collide, sending debris on a potentially cataclysmic collision course with a vital communications satellite. Click here to view the video. (11/6)
Spain Incorporates Space Tourism in Airports Legislation (Source: SPACErePORT)
In a Spanish "Airports and Heliports Law" passed in July, language was included to support Catalonia's efforts to develop a space tourism industry. The law states that facilities and services necessary for space and space tourism can be located at airports. Also, "the Government shall put into effect...actions of promotion and devlopment of space-related activities, and especially, activities of education, public outreach and spacce tourism..." (11/6)
Orbital Debris Threatens Space Station (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Flight controllers were monitoring an unknown piece of orbital debris that could pass within 500 meters of the International Space Station at 10:48 p.m. on Friday. The station crew might be asked to board the docked Soyuz capsules later, as a precaution, depending on the outcome of additional tracking data analysis. (11/6)
Foreign Land Awaits Soyuz Rockets leaving Russia (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The first two Soyuz rockets scheduled to lift off from the Guiana Space Center next year will take their first step toward space Saturday, beginning a transatlantic ocean voyage to a jungle spaceport instead of heading for the familiar steppes of Kazakhstan. (11/6)
South Korean Weather-Communications Satellite to Launch From Kourou (Source: Xinhua)
South Korea plans to launch its first weather-communications satellite into space in March, 2010. The satellite was developed jointly by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and France's Astrium. It will be placed in geostationary orbit 36,000 km from Earth and be equipped with a multi-spectrum camera and sensor array that can help gather high quality ocean meteorological data including typhoons, ocean temperatures, the movement of dust and cloud formations. (11/6)
California Wants Boeing, NASA to Clean Up of Toxic Lab (Source: Daily Comet)
California environmental regulators have proposed forcing Boeing and NASA to clean up chemical and radioactive pollution at a 2,800-acre research site in eastern Ventura County. The draft of a revised cleanup plan for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory was announced Wednesday. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control wants any cleanup to meet federal and state standards. The draft plan names Boeing, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy as the responsible parties. Boeing, which has been negotiating with the state for months over cleanup details, calls the plan disappointing. It has a week to respond. The lab 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles was used for nuclear power and rocket testing for more than four decades. (11/6)
Space Debris Threatens Space Station And Its Crew (Source: Florida Today)
Six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station will be ready to climb into Soyuz lifeboats for a potential evacuation tonight if a piece of space junk being tracked by flight controllers collides with the outpost. NASA flight commentator Kelly Humphries said a collision is highly unlikely. Nonetheless, the crew was briefed on the unidentified piece of debris, which is expected to come within one-third of a mile of the station around 10:48 p.m. EST. (11/6)
Firm Will Is Needed to Advance Korea's Space Program (Source: Chosun.com)
An independent panel of experts investigating the failure of Korea's first satellite launch rocket earlier this year announced on Thursday that the cause was an abnormal separation of the nose fairing assembly which covered the satellite payload. It caused by either a mechanical problem or a delayed detonation of a charge that facilitates the separation. The panel said no other abnormalities occurred during the launch. If that analysis is correct, then there is a good chance that the failure of the Naro or KSLV-1 rocket to put its satellite payload into orbit was due to a mistake in the portion of the rocket that Korean scientists were in charge of. (11/6)
China: Space Militarization Comment Misinterpreted (Source: Forbes)
Did the arms race in space begin this week? "Competition between military forces is developing towards the sky and space, it is extending beyond the atmosphere and even into outer space," said the chief of the Chinese air force in the Nov. 2 edition of People's Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China's military. "This development is a historical inevitability and cannot be undone."
What cannot be undone is the effect of General Xu Qiliang's words. Chinese state media, however, tried to do just that, contending that the foreign media misinterpreted him. Then Chinese diplomats got in on the act. "China has never and will not participate in an outer space arms race in any form," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu on Nov. 5. "The position of China on this point remains unchanged." (11/6)
LaserMotive is First Ever Prize Winner in Space Elevator Games (Source: Popular Science)
First proposed in 1895, and popularized by the Arthur C. Clarke book The Fountains of Paradise, space elevators have a rich history in the culture of space travel. Unfortunately, the history of their engineering success is far less impressive. But if the results from this week's Space Elevator Games are any indication, that might be about to change. Funded by NASA and the Spaceward Foundation, the yearly contest offers a $2 million first prize to any group whose machine can quickly climb a kilometer-long ribbon tethered to a helicopter, while receiving power remotely from the ground. On Tuesday, LaserMotive became the first team in competition history to qualify for the $900,000 second prize.
The LaserMotive machine consists of a motor that pulls the device up the 2,953-foot-long ribbon, photovoltaic cells that power the motor, and a ground-based laser that provides the light for the cells. LaserMotive set a new record for the competition, and became the first team to ever reach the top of the ribbon. However, they had to settle for the $900,000 second prize, as securing the $2 million first prize requires not only reaching the top of the ribbon, but doing so at an average speed of 11 miles per hour. Sadly, the LaserMotive machine ran slightly slower than that mark. (11/6)
General Calls for Focus on Protecting Satellites (Source: USAF)
The chief of U.S. Strategic Command wants better tools for protecting against threats from space debris -- an estimated 20,000 pieces of manmade material orbiting around the planet. Gen. Kevin P. Chilton laid out what he described as his "wish list" Nov. 4, emphasizing the importance of being able to predict collisions between debris and valuable satellites. Given the scarce number of personnel tasked with carrying out this mission, "we are decades behind where we should be, in my view," General Chilton said. (11/6)
Senate Votes to Restore NASA Funding Previously Cut by House (Source: Houston Chronicle)
In a strong show of support for President Obama's vision for NASA and manned space missions, the Senate agreed Thursday to hand over all that he asked for: $4 billion to build cutting-edge spacecraft as part of an $18.7 billion budget. The Senate voted 71 to 28 for a massive spending bill that would restore $670 million cut from manned space exploration by the House in June. The proposed spending still faces a strong test of wills as the Senate and House try to reach a budgetary compromise.
“NASA can't do anything unless it gets some serious, new, additional money,” said Sen. Bill Nelson. The Senate measure provides $3.2 billion for shuttle operations through Sept. 30 next year; $4 billion for construction and operation of the orbiting $100 billion International Space Station; and $628 million to pay the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts and cargo to the ISS after the shuttle fleet is retired.
Texas' senators split on the measure. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, voted in favor of the spending bill and won a seat on the team of Senate negotiators that will work out differences with the House. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the GOP campaign committee working to win control of the Senate in 2010 and an increasingly ardent voice against federal spending, voted against the package. Cornyn backs full funding for NASA, spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said. But the overall measure increases federal funding for the various agencies and departments by nearly 13 percent over last year, McLaughlin said. (11/6)
China-Backed Space Measure Advances in United Nations (Source: Spaceports Blog)
China, Russia, and 68 other co-sponsor countries are behind a Transparency and Confidence Building Measures in Outer Space measure that was approved on Oct. 29 by the First Committee of the 64th UN General Assembly. Of particular note, the EU countries became a collective cosponsor. The measure will pave the way for talks on an agreement on the demilitarization of space, a Russian diplomat said. In the past, only the United States and several island nations opposed similar Russian proposals. The approval of the draft document by the committee practically ensures that the proposals will be adopted by the UN General Assembly in December.
The Russian official emphasized the fact that the U.S. has decided for the first time to go along with the rest of the world, and Washington has noted the importance of bilateral cooperation with Russia on all issues related to outer space. It clearly shows the shift in U.S. global policies in general and builds up optimism on the success of future talks on demilitarization of outer space, the Russian diplomat concluded. In consultation with allies, the United States is currently in the process of assessing options for international cooperation in space as a part of a comprehensive review of national space policy. (11/6)
Sirius Makes Strides in Third Quarter (Source: Wall Street Journal)
For the first time since December, Sirius XM Radio Inc. began adding subscribers, a promising sign for the paid-radio business. The company, which ran into financing difficulties that nearly sent it into bankruptcy early this year before Liberty Media Corp. took a 40% stake, is still suffering as consumers keep a tight lid on their spending, and it may lose subscribers again in the fourth quarter. (11/6)
DirecTV Shows Subscriber Gains, as Rivals See Loss (Source: LA Times)
Satellite TV operator DirecTV Group Inc. was one of the few pay-TV companies to attract new subscribers in the third quarter, as it reported revenue growth of 10 percent that was partly offset by higher costs to attract and serve those customers. DirecTV, which is controlled by media mogul John Malone's Liberty Media Corp., has focused on attracting consumers who don't mind paying more for quality TV as long as they get football and other packages they want. (11/6)
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says sending astronauts to various solar system destinations instead of focusing exclusively on the Moon is an “attractive” option that could allow the U.S. space agency to phase in promising new technologies while inspiring the American public at regular intervals along the way.
“You utilize lunar exploration, utilize visits to asteroids, whether it’s robotic or human,” Bolden said. “That’s what makes it attractive to everybody,” he said. “That’s the one good thing about it. It is not a lunar program, and it’s not a Mars program. It allows you to go to different destinations as you see the capabilities arise.” (11/6)
Air Force To Study Using Alternative SBIRS Sensor (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force intends to hire Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems to study the feasibility of incorporating a next-generation missile warning sensor into the service’s Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). Raytheon started work in 2006 on an experimental missile warning sensor for the Air Force under a program now called the Third Generation Infrared Surveillance system (3GIRS). The company was awarded a $46 million contract to upgrade the sensor to a fully flight-qualified payload. (11/6)
Huntsville Mayor Rallies Support for Ares I (Source: Huntsville Times)
Mayor Tommy Battle used his second "State of the City" address Thursday to plug the embattled Ares I rocket. Speaking to a sellout crowd of 1,300 people at the Von Braun Center's North Hall, Battle said the Rocket City has to find a way to keep the Marshall Space Flight Center-managed program alive.
Battle drew loud applause when he said Huntsville needs to "convince Congress, convince the White House that we have the finest pool of intelligence and technologically advanced people that have ever been on earth in the business of space. "If you ever let that pool disperse," he said, "you'll never get it back." (11/6)
NASA COTS Companies Benefit from Stimulus Aid (Source: Flight Global)
Orbital Sciences and SpaceX are to benefit from millions of dollars more than originally agreed under their NASA-funded Commercial Transportation Space Act agreements. NASA is spending $24 million on launch and test infrastructure, including at its Wallops flight facility where Orbital will launch its Taurus II rocket and the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, where SpaceX will operate its Falcon 9 booster. NASA declines to say how much investment the two companies' launch sites are getting because it "may be procurement sensitive information".
The funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and some of the $24 million is being spent on John C Stennis Center testing facilities. Orbital could not provide investment figures for its site and construction company RS&H, which has won a Wallops contract, is prohibited from giving details. However, sources close to SpaceX say that Kennedy will get around $1 million of ARRA funds and that company's complex will gain improvements. (11/6)
Stadd Gets House Arrest and Probation (Source: Space News)
Former NASA Chief of Staff Courtney Stadd, convicted in August of lying to U.S. government ethics officials and inappropriately steering agency funds to a consulting client, was sentenced to three years probation, six months of home confinement Nov. 6 and fined $2,500. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer before a courtroom packed with many of Stadd’s friends and aerospace industry colleagues. Stadd had been facing up to 15 years in prison, but during the sentencing hearing the prosecutors asked for only a one-year term. (11/6)
Google Unveils Protocol for Interplanetary Internet (Source: WIRED)
Vint Cerf, Google's internet evangelist, has unveiled a new protocol intended to power an interplanetary internet. The Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocol emerged from work first started in 1998 in partnership with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The initial goal was to modify the ubiquitous Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to facilitate robust communications between celestial bodies and satellites. They were forced to acknowledge that TCP simply couldn't cut the mustard, with massive delay and data loss caused by celestial motion rendering TCP useless.
"There was a little problem called the speed of light," joked a typically playful Cerf, as he outlined the idea to the OpenMobileSummit conference in San Francisco. "When Earth and Mars are closest, we're 35 million miles apart, and it's a three and a half minute trip one way, seven minutes for a round trip. Then when we're farthest apart, we're 235 million miles – 20 minutes one way, 40 minutes round trip."
The core issue is that TCP assumes a continuous (and fairly reliable) connection. DTN makes no such assumptions, requiring each node to buffer all of its packets until a stable connection can be established. Whereas TCP will repeatedly attempt to send packets until they are successfully acknowledged, DTN will automatically find a destination node with a reliable connection, and then send its payload just once. Given the latency of space communications and the minimal power restrictions placed upon satellites, DTNs approach seems prudent. (11/6)
Air Force Recruitment Video Focuses on Space Collision Avoidance (Source: USAF)
An Air Force commercial highlighting the service's role in protecting satellite and other space assets shows what happens when two pieces of space junk collide, sending debris on a potentially cataclysmic collision course with a vital communications satellite. Click here to view the video. (11/6)
Spain Incorporates Space Tourism in Airports Legislation (Source: SPACErePORT)
In a Spanish "Airports and Heliports Law" passed in July, language was included to support Catalonia's efforts to develop a space tourism industry. The law states that facilities and services necessary for space and space tourism can be located at airports. Also, "the Government shall put into effect...actions of promotion and devlopment of space-related activities, and especially, activities of education, public outreach and spacce tourism..." (11/6)
Orbital Debris Threatens Space Station (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Flight controllers were monitoring an unknown piece of orbital debris that could pass within 500 meters of the International Space Station at 10:48 p.m. on Friday. The station crew might be asked to board the docked Soyuz capsules later, as a precaution, depending on the outcome of additional tracking data analysis. (11/6)
Foreign Land Awaits Soyuz Rockets leaving Russia (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The first two Soyuz rockets scheduled to lift off from the Guiana Space Center next year will take their first step toward space Saturday, beginning a transatlantic ocean voyage to a jungle spaceport instead of heading for the familiar steppes of Kazakhstan. (11/6)
South Korean Weather-Communications Satellite to Launch From Kourou (Source: Xinhua)
South Korea plans to launch its first weather-communications satellite into space in March, 2010. The satellite was developed jointly by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and France's Astrium. It will be placed in geostationary orbit 36,000 km from Earth and be equipped with a multi-spectrum camera and sensor array that can help gather high quality ocean meteorological data including typhoons, ocean temperatures, the movement of dust and cloud formations. (11/6)
California Wants Boeing, NASA to Clean Up of Toxic Lab (Source: Daily Comet)
California environmental regulators have proposed forcing Boeing and NASA to clean up chemical and radioactive pollution at a 2,800-acre research site in eastern Ventura County. The draft of a revised cleanup plan for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory was announced Wednesday. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control wants any cleanup to meet federal and state standards. The draft plan names Boeing, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy as the responsible parties. Boeing, which has been negotiating with the state for months over cleanup details, calls the plan disappointing. It has a week to respond. The lab 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles was used for nuclear power and rocket testing for more than four decades. (11/6)
Space Debris Threatens Space Station And Its Crew (Source: Florida Today)
Six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station will be ready to climb into Soyuz lifeboats for a potential evacuation tonight if a piece of space junk being tracked by flight controllers collides with the outpost. NASA flight commentator Kelly Humphries said a collision is highly unlikely. Nonetheless, the crew was briefed on the unidentified piece of debris, which is expected to come within one-third of a mile of the station around 10:48 p.m. EST. (11/6)
Firm Will Is Needed to Advance Korea's Space Program (Source: Chosun.com)
An independent panel of experts investigating the failure of Korea's first satellite launch rocket earlier this year announced on Thursday that the cause was an abnormal separation of the nose fairing assembly which covered the satellite payload. It caused by either a mechanical problem or a delayed detonation of a charge that facilitates the separation. The panel said no other abnormalities occurred during the launch. If that analysis is correct, then there is a good chance that the failure of the Naro or KSLV-1 rocket to put its satellite payload into orbit was due to a mistake in the portion of the rocket that Korean scientists were in charge of. (11/6)
China: Space Militarization Comment Misinterpreted (Source: Forbes)
Did the arms race in space begin this week? "Competition between military forces is developing towards the sky and space, it is extending beyond the atmosphere and even into outer space," said the chief of the Chinese air force in the Nov. 2 edition of People's Liberation Army Daily, the official newspaper of China's military. "This development is a historical inevitability and cannot be undone."
What cannot be undone is the effect of General Xu Qiliang's words. Chinese state media, however, tried to do just that, contending that the foreign media misinterpreted him. Then Chinese diplomats got in on the act. "China has never and will not participate in an outer space arms race in any form," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu on Nov. 5. "The position of China on this point remains unchanged." (11/6)
LaserMotive is First Ever Prize Winner in Space Elevator Games (Source: Popular Science)
First proposed in 1895, and popularized by the Arthur C. Clarke book The Fountains of Paradise, space elevators have a rich history in the culture of space travel. Unfortunately, the history of their engineering success is far less impressive. But if the results from this week's Space Elevator Games are any indication, that might be about to change. Funded by NASA and the Spaceward Foundation, the yearly contest offers a $2 million first prize to any group whose machine can quickly climb a kilometer-long ribbon tethered to a helicopter, while receiving power remotely from the ground. On Tuesday, LaserMotive became the first team in competition history to qualify for the $900,000 second prize.
The LaserMotive machine consists of a motor that pulls the device up the 2,953-foot-long ribbon, photovoltaic cells that power the motor, and a ground-based laser that provides the light for the cells. LaserMotive set a new record for the competition, and became the first team to ever reach the top of the ribbon. However, they had to settle for the $900,000 second prize, as securing the $2 million first prize requires not only reaching the top of the ribbon, but doing so at an average speed of 11 miles per hour. Sadly, the LaserMotive machine ran slightly slower than that mark. (11/6)
General Calls for Focus on Protecting Satellites (Source: USAF)
The chief of U.S. Strategic Command wants better tools for protecting against threats from space debris -- an estimated 20,000 pieces of manmade material orbiting around the planet. Gen. Kevin P. Chilton laid out what he described as his "wish list" Nov. 4, emphasizing the importance of being able to predict collisions between debris and valuable satellites. Given the scarce number of personnel tasked with carrying out this mission, "we are decades behind where we should be, in my view," General Chilton said. (11/6)
Senate Votes to Restore NASA Funding Previously Cut by House (Source: Houston Chronicle)
In a strong show of support for President Obama's vision for NASA and manned space missions, the Senate agreed Thursday to hand over all that he asked for: $4 billion to build cutting-edge spacecraft as part of an $18.7 billion budget. The Senate voted 71 to 28 for a massive spending bill that would restore $670 million cut from manned space exploration by the House in June. The proposed spending still faces a strong test of wills as the Senate and House try to reach a budgetary compromise.
“NASA can't do anything unless it gets some serious, new, additional money,” said Sen. Bill Nelson. The Senate measure provides $3.2 billion for shuttle operations through Sept. 30 next year; $4 billion for construction and operation of the orbiting $100 billion International Space Station; and $628 million to pay the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts and cargo to the ISS after the shuttle fleet is retired.
Texas' senators split on the measure. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Dallas, voted in favor of the spending bill and won a seat on the team of Senate negotiators that will work out differences with the House. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, chairman of the GOP campaign committee working to win control of the Senate in 2010 and an increasingly ardent voice against federal spending, voted against the package. Cornyn backs full funding for NASA, spokesman Kevin McLaughlin said. But the overall measure increases federal funding for the various agencies and departments by nearly 13 percent over last year, McLaughlin said. (11/6)
China-Backed Space Measure Advances in United Nations (Source: Spaceports Blog)
China, Russia, and 68 other co-sponsor countries are behind a Transparency and Confidence Building Measures in Outer Space measure that was approved on Oct. 29 by the First Committee of the 64th UN General Assembly. Of particular note, the EU countries became a collective cosponsor. The measure will pave the way for talks on an agreement on the demilitarization of space, a Russian diplomat said. In the past, only the United States and several island nations opposed similar Russian proposals. The approval of the draft document by the committee practically ensures that the proposals will be adopted by the UN General Assembly in December.
The Russian official emphasized the fact that the U.S. has decided for the first time to go along with the rest of the world, and Washington has noted the importance of bilateral cooperation with Russia on all issues related to outer space. It clearly shows the shift in U.S. global policies in general and builds up optimism on the success of future talks on demilitarization of outer space, the Russian diplomat concluded. In consultation with allies, the United States is currently in the process of assessing options for international cooperation in space as a part of a comprehensive review of national space policy. (11/6)
Sirius Makes Strides in Third Quarter (Source: Wall Street Journal)
For the first time since December, Sirius XM Radio Inc. began adding subscribers, a promising sign for the paid-radio business. The company, which ran into financing difficulties that nearly sent it into bankruptcy early this year before Liberty Media Corp. took a 40% stake, is still suffering as consumers keep a tight lid on their spending, and it may lose subscribers again in the fourth quarter. (11/6)
DirecTV Shows Subscriber Gains, as Rivals See Loss (Source: LA Times)
Satellite TV operator DirecTV Group Inc. was one of the few pay-TV companies to attract new subscribers in the third quarter, as it reported revenue growth of 10 percent that was partly offset by higher costs to attract and serve those customers. DirecTV, which is controlled by media mogul John Malone's Liberty Media Corp., has focused on attracting consumers who don't mind paying more for quality TV as long as they get football and other packages they want. (11/6)
November 5 News Items
Range Technology Prize Competition Suggested to NASA (Source: SPACErePORT)
NASA's deadline for submitting ideas for new "Centennial Challenge" prize competitions is Nov. 8. Embry-Riddle offered one idea to the mix, aimed at boosting U.S. space transportation competitiveness through the improvement of range safety technologies. The competition would bring together various alternative range safety systems for a head-to-head fly-off during a pre-scheduled Atlas, Delta or Falcon launch, allowing NASA, the FAA and Air Force to determine which ones meet basic government-set requirements, and which ones are most responsive and least expensive to operate.
There are several alternative range safety systems available or under development, and this competition would facilitate their qualification for use by the Air Force and NASA to upgrade existing launch ranges, while also allowing their use at FAA-licensed spaceports that don't already have a NASA or military range system in-place. (11/5)
Embry-Riddle Officials Join Study Team for Point-to-Point Suborbital Spaceflight (Source: SPACErePORT)
Policy and transportation analysts at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will participate on a "FastForward" study group to develop a pre-competitive analysis of future global high-speed point-to-point passenger and cargo services, a capability envisioned to grow into a major market for spaceports and suborbital launch companies. A representative from Space Florida also serves on the FastForward group. Click here for more information. (11/5)
USA Gets Lean for Contract Competition (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
United Space Alliance, NASA's main shuttle contractor, told employees it will be canceling merit pay raises across the company next year in order to keep costs down as it tries to win new business after the agency mothballs the orbiter fleet in 2011. "The annual merit pay increases for 2010 for performance and things like that, we made the decision not to do that," said company spokesman Jeff Carr. "This really about protecting our rates to be competitive for future follow on work."
United Space Alliance, which is jointly owned by aerospace giants Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., is hoping to win the ground operations contract that will run NASA's next human space exploration program after the shuttle fleet is retired by the end of next year or in early 2011. The Houston-based company employs 8,900 people in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Washington, D.C. The largest share of the workforce-- comprising some 5,600 technicians, engineers and managers -- is at KSC.
Carr provided no details about how much money USA expected to pay out in raises, but he said that increases in employee health care costs of between seven and 10 per cent were being absorbed by the company, which needed to offset those costs in order to compete for the new contracts. The question is whether the news about canceling pay raises will help retain workers or push them to look for different jobs. Workers with the most critical skills have been promised bonuses if they remain to the end of the shuttle program. These are unaffected by the latest announcement. (11/5)
Small European Satellites Look to Hitch a Ride to Space (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Future small-class European payloads are slated to shift from using Russian launchers to the Vega rocket when it begins flying late next year, but officials with Russian launch providers say they are not giving up on the market just yet. Monday's launch of the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite left the Rockot launcher with a single future mission on its books.
The Rockot is made by combining two stages of the SS-19 missile with a Breeze KM upper stage to deliver satellites to orbit. But Eurockot, the joint German-Russian company that oversees commercial Rockot flights, is still discussing potential deals with ESA for upcoming Earth observation satellites. It is ESA's formal policy to award small institutional missions to the agency's Vega rocket, a new launcher being built to haul light satellites into space from the Guiana Space Center in South America. (11/5)
New Theory Tries to Explain Missing Matter (Source: MSNBC)
One of the greatest mysteries of astronomy is the problem of the missing mass: All of the matter scientists can see in the universe accounts for only a small percent of the observed gravity. Astronomers often invoke the concept of dark matter to explain this discrepancy, but some researchers say the problem is really our understanding of gravity. These scientists tout an idea called MOND — Modified Theory of Newtonian Dynamics — to explain why the universe seems to behave as if there's much more matter in it than we think.
Instead of assuming that this missing mass exists in the form of dark matter, which scientists have yet to detect directly, MOND advocates say we must alter Einstein's general theory of relativity. Under MOND, mass is much more effective at bending space-time than under General Relativity, so it takes less stuff in the universe to account for all the gravity we measure. (11/5)
Astronomy Lecture Planned at College Planetarium on Nov. 13 (Source: SPACErePORT)
Brevard Community College continues its Space and Astronomy Lecture Series on Nov. 13 with a lecture by UCF's Dr. Humberto Campins. The free lecture is titled: Small Bodies and Big Impacts: Asteroids, Comets and the Origin of the Earth's Water." The event will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the BCC Planetarium in Cocoa. Click here for information. It will be followed by a star party hosted by the Brevard Astronomical Society. (11/5)
Lockheed Disputes Reports of Further SBIRS Delays (Source: AIA)
Defense officials say the Air Force's Space Based Infrared System program, troubled by cost overruns and schedule delays over the years, will face yet another delay -- this time of 12 to 18 months -- as Lockheed Martin Corp. wraps up testing. But Lockheed disputes that view, insisting that the program is on track for delivery to the Air Force by the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010. (11/5)
NASA Aims For 2012 Ares Test Flight From KSC (Source: Florida Today)
NASA is scrapping plans for an Ares I-Y test flight because it is slipping out too far to be of use and aiming instead to launch an earlier test flight on 2012 that would feature a five-segment solid rocket booster and perhaps test the rocket's launch abort system. The earlier launch would take place at launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, giving a boost to a center that is expected to see about 7,000 layoffs in late 2010 or early 2011 when the shuttle fleet is retired.
The new test flight would be dubbed Ares I-X Prime, NASA officials said. The Ares I-Y mission was scheduled to fly in 2013 but would have slipped to 2014 -- just a year before NASA is slated to fly the first piloted flight of an Ares rocket and an Orion spacecraft. (11/5)
Debate Rages Over Radioactive Space Monkeys (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
An animal rights group plans to file legal action against NASA on Thursday to stop the space agency from injecting squirrel monkeys with radiation to mimic the effects that cosmic radiation could have on long-distance space travelers. Advocates with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine claim that the $1.75 million experiment, conducted in association with the Brookhaven National Laboratory, violates internal NASA guidelines and should not continue.
“Irradiating monkeys would be one giant leap backward for NASA,” said Hope Ferdowsian, the group’s director of research policy, in a statement. “The proposed experiments are cruel, unnecessary, and lack scientific merit.” A NASA spokesman said the four-year test -- which has not yet begun -- involves injecting 18-28 squirrel monkeys with a “single shot that simulates months of exposure” to cosmic radiation that astronauts could experience during a months-long mission to Mars, a future goal of NASA. (11/5)
Space Tourism a Reality by 2012 (Source: Fox News)
The latest trend in eco-tourism is completely out of this world ... and right around the corner. Routine commercial travel to outer space may be the norm as soon as 2012, as the next generation of spacecraft — designed by private sector firms like Virgin Galactic, Orbital Sciences Corp., Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and others — transport adventure-seeking civilians into low-Earth orbit.
There, they can see the sun rise many times a day, and experience the breathtaking curve of planet Earth that only NASA astronauts such as Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin have previously seen. If they want to extend their stay, they can check in to the solar system’s first orbiting hotel, The Galactic Space Suite Hotel, set to open in three years. (11/5)
Success, Frustration in Space Elevator Competition (Source: AP)
A laser-powered machine has zipped thousands of feet up a cable dangling from a helicopter in a competition to develop space elevator technology. LaserMotive of Seattle qualified for at least $900,000 in the $2 million NASA-backed Space Elevator Games, which began Wednesday at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base.
LaserMotive's vehicle climbed 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) in just over four minutes and then repeated the feat. The Kansas City, Mo., Space Pirates went first. Their vehicle was too slow to qualify for a prize but apparently was only about 160 feet short of the top when it had to stop.
Theoretically, space elevators are a way to reach space without using rockets. They would use a cable stretched between the Earth's surface and a platform in geosynchronous orbit. The highly technical contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, most familiar to the public as a space shuttle landing site. (11/5)
NASA Juggles Manifest for Future Ares Test Flights (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
One week after the first major flight test of the agency's new Ares 1 rocket, NASA is closer to cancelling a demonstration launch called Ares 1-Y, potentially replacing it with a new, still undefined test flight in 2012 or 2013.
During a meeting last week, managers agreed to re-evaluate the proposed suborbital Ares 1-Y flight most recently scheduled for March 2014. NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma said Ares 1-Y had slipped too late in the development of the Ares 1 rocket to be valuable to engineers. Originally planned for 2012, the Ares 1-Y launch date had slipped until 2014, just one year before NASA says it will fly the first crewed Orion capsule on top of an Ares 1. (11/5)
Giant Galaxy Graveyard Grows (Source: Science News)
The largest known galactic congregation is bigger than astronomers thought—and its inhabitants are all dead or dying. A gigantic galactic graveyard lurks in the distant universe, and the death toll is growing. New observations establish a supercluster centered on the cluster CL0016+16 as the largest galactic congregation ever found, astronomers report in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The supercluster extends even farther than previously thought, and it’s drawing in more and more galaxies.
CL0016+16 lies about 6.7 billion light-years away from Earth. That cluster was first observed in 1981, and later observations hinted that it might be just one of a cluster of clusters. Observations by David Koo of the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996 pointed to a large structure extending from the main cluster. (11/5)
NASA's deadline for submitting ideas for new "Centennial Challenge" prize competitions is Nov. 8. Embry-Riddle offered one idea to the mix, aimed at boosting U.S. space transportation competitiveness through the improvement of range safety technologies. The competition would bring together various alternative range safety systems for a head-to-head fly-off during a pre-scheduled Atlas, Delta or Falcon launch, allowing NASA, the FAA and Air Force to determine which ones meet basic government-set requirements, and which ones are most responsive and least expensive to operate.
There are several alternative range safety systems available or under development, and this competition would facilitate their qualification for use by the Air Force and NASA to upgrade existing launch ranges, while also allowing their use at FAA-licensed spaceports that don't already have a NASA or military range system in-place. (11/5)
Embry-Riddle Officials Join Study Team for Point-to-Point Suborbital Spaceflight (Source: SPACErePORT)
Policy and transportation analysts at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will participate on a "FastForward" study group to develop a pre-competitive analysis of future global high-speed point-to-point passenger and cargo services, a capability envisioned to grow into a major market for spaceports and suborbital launch companies. A representative from Space Florida also serves on the FastForward group. Click here for more information. (11/5)
USA Gets Lean for Contract Competition (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
United Space Alliance, NASA's main shuttle contractor, told employees it will be canceling merit pay raises across the company next year in order to keep costs down as it tries to win new business after the agency mothballs the orbiter fleet in 2011. "The annual merit pay increases for 2010 for performance and things like that, we made the decision not to do that," said company spokesman Jeff Carr. "This really about protecting our rates to be competitive for future follow on work."
United Space Alliance, which is jointly owned by aerospace giants Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., is hoping to win the ground operations contract that will run NASA's next human space exploration program after the shuttle fleet is retired by the end of next year or in early 2011. The Houston-based company employs 8,900 people in Texas, Alabama, Florida and Washington, D.C. The largest share of the workforce-- comprising some 5,600 technicians, engineers and managers -- is at KSC.
Carr provided no details about how much money USA expected to pay out in raises, but he said that increases in employee health care costs of between seven and 10 per cent were being absorbed by the company, which needed to offset those costs in order to compete for the new contracts. The question is whether the news about canceling pay raises will help retain workers or push them to look for different jobs. Workers with the most critical skills have been promised bonuses if they remain to the end of the shuttle program. These are unaffected by the latest announcement. (11/5)
Small European Satellites Look to Hitch a Ride to Space (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Future small-class European payloads are slated to shift from using Russian launchers to the Vega rocket when it begins flying late next year, but officials with Russian launch providers say they are not giving up on the market just yet. Monday's launch of the European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity satellite left the Rockot launcher with a single future mission on its books.
The Rockot is made by combining two stages of the SS-19 missile with a Breeze KM upper stage to deliver satellites to orbit. But Eurockot, the joint German-Russian company that oversees commercial Rockot flights, is still discussing potential deals with ESA for upcoming Earth observation satellites. It is ESA's formal policy to award small institutional missions to the agency's Vega rocket, a new launcher being built to haul light satellites into space from the Guiana Space Center in South America. (11/5)
New Theory Tries to Explain Missing Matter (Source: MSNBC)
One of the greatest mysteries of astronomy is the problem of the missing mass: All of the matter scientists can see in the universe accounts for only a small percent of the observed gravity. Astronomers often invoke the concept of dark matter to explain this discrepancy, but some researchers say the problem is really our understanding of gravity. These scientists tout an idea called MOND — Modified Theory of Newtonian Dynamics — to explain why the universe seems to behave as if there's much more matter in it than we think.
Instead of assuming that this missing mass exists in the form of dark matter, which scientists have yet to detect directly, MOND advocates say we must alter Einstein's general theory of relativity. Under MOND, mass is much more effective at bending space-time than under General Relativity, so it takes less stuff in the universe to account for all the gravity we measure. (11/5)
Astronomy Lecture Planned at College Planetarium on Nov. 13 (Source: SPACErePORT)
Brevard Community College continues its Space and Astronomy Lecture Series on Nov. 13 with a lecture by UCF's Dr. Humberto Campins. The free lecture is titled: Small Bodies and Big Impacts: Asteroids, Comets and the Origin of the Earth's Water." The event will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the BCC Planetarium in Cocoa. Click here for information. It will be followed by a star party hosted by the Brevard Astronomical Society. (11/5)
Lockheed Disputes Reports of Further SBIRS Delays (Source: AIA)
Defense officials say the Air Force's Space Based Infrared System program, troubled by cost overruns and schedule delays over the years, will face yet another delay -- this time of 12 to 18 months -- as Lockheed Martin Corp. wraps up testing. But Lockheed disputes that view, insisting that the program is on track for delivery to the Air Force by the fourth quarter of calendar year 2010. (11/5)
NASA Aims For 2012 Ares Test Flight From KSC (Source: Florida Today)
NASA is scrapping plans for an Ares I-Y test flight because it is slipping out too far to be of use and aiming instead to launch an earlier test flight on 2012 that would feature a five-segment solid rocket booster and perhaps test the rocket's launch abort system. The earlier launch would take place at launch pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, giving a boost to a center that is expected to see about 7,000 layoffs in late 2010 or early 2011 when the shuttle fleet is retired.
The new test flight would be dubbed Ares I-X Prime, NASA officials said. The Ares I-Y mission was scheduled to fly in 2013 but would have slipped to 2014 -- just a year before NASA is slated to fly the first piloted flight of an Ares rocket and an Orion spacecraft. (11/5)
Debate Rages Over Radioactive Space Monkeys (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
An animal rights group plans to file legal action against NASA on Thursday to stop the space agency from injecting squirrel monkeys with radiation to mimic the effects that cosmic radiation could have on long-distance space travelers. Advocates with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine claim that the $1.75 million experiment, conducted in association with the Brookhaven National Laboratory, violates internal NASA guidelines and should not continue.
“Irradiating monkeys would be one giant leap backward for NASA,” said Hope Ferdowsian, the group’s director of research policy, in a statement. “The proposed experiments are cruel, unnecessary, and lack scientific merit.” A NASA spokesman said the four-year test -- which has not yet begun -- involves injecting 18-28 squirrel monkeys with a “single shot that simulates months of exposure” to cosmic radiation that astronauts could experience during a months-long mission to Mars, a future goal of NASA. (11/5)
Space Tourism a Reality by 2012 (Source: Fox News)
The latest trend in eco-tourism is completely out of this world ... and right around the corner. Routine commercial travel to outer space may be the norm as soon as 2012, as the next generation of spacecraft — designed by private sector firms like Virgin Galactic, Orbital Sciences Corp., Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and others — transport adventure-seeking civilians into low-Earth orbit.
There, they can see the sun rise many times a day, and experience the breathtaking curve of planet Earth that only NASA astronauts such as Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin have previously seen. If they want to extend their stay, they can check in to the solar system’s first orbiting hotel, The Galactic Space Suite Hotel, set to open in three years. (11/5)
Success, Frustration in Space Elevator Competition (Source: AP)
A laser-powered machine has zipped thousands of feet up a cable dangling from a helicopter in a competition to develop space elevator technology. LaserMotive of Seattle qualified for at least $900,000 in the $2 million NASA-backed Space Elevator Games, which began Wednesday at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base.
LaserMotive's vehicle climbed 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) in just over four minutes and then repeated the feat. The Kansas City, Mo., Space Pirates went first. Their vehicle was too slow to qualify for a prize but apparently was only about 160 feet short of the top when it had to stop.
Theoretically, space elevators are a way to reach space without using rockets. They would use a cable stretched between the Earth's surface and a platform in geosynchronous orbit. The highly technical contest brought teams from Missouri, Alaska and Seattle to Rogers Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, most familiar to the public as a space shuttle landing site. (11/5)
NASA Juggles Manifest for Future Ares Test Flights (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
One week after the first major flight test of the agency's new Ares 1 rocket, NASA is closer to cancelling a demonstration launch called Ares 1-Y, potentially replacing it with a new, still undefined test flight in 2012 or 2013.
During a meeting last week, managers agreed to re-evaluate the proposed suborbital Ares 1-Y flight most recently scheduled for March 2014. NASA spokesman Grey Hautaluoma said Ares 1-Y had slipped too late in the development of the Ares 1 rocket to be valuable to engineers. Originally planned for 2012, the Ares 1-Y launch date had slipped until 2014, just one year before NASA says it will fly the first crewed Orion capsule on top of an Ares 1. (11/5)
Giant Galaxy Graveyard Grows (Source: Science News)
The largest known galactic congregation is bigger than astronomers thought—and its inhabitants are all dead or dying. A gigantic galactic graveyard lurks in the distant universe, and the death toll is growing. New observations establish a supercluster centered on the cluster CL0016+16 as the largest galactic congregation ever found, astronomers report in Astronomy & Astrophysics. The supercluster extends even farther than previously thought, and it’s drawing in more and more galaxies.
CL0016+16 lies about 6.7 billion light-years away from Earth. That cluster was first observed in 1981, and later observations hinted that it might be just one of a cluster of clusters. Observations by David Koo of the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996 pointed to a large structure extending from the main cluster. (11/5)
November 4 News Items
NASA Drops Ares I-Y Flight-Test (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA's Constellation Program has recommended dropping a planned follow-on to last week's successful Ares I-X flight-test because it doesn't have the funding necessary to get an upper stage engine ready in time. Instead, the Ares I-X engineering team will study the costs and benefits of going ahead with a 2012 launch previously dubbed "Ares I-X prime" that would flight-test a full five-segment Ares I solid-fuel first stage and the Orion crew exploration vehicle launch abort system at high altitude, according to Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley.
Hanley said on Nov. 3 he has recommended to NASA headquarters that the Ares I-Y test planned for March 2014 be canceled because the J-2X engine needed to propel the upper stage won't be ready in time to support that test date. The problem is money, he said. (11/4)
Space Hotel Takes Reservations for 2012 Opening (Source: Space.com)
Some forward-looking vacationers have already booked a stay at the first space hotel, which is on track to open in 2012, according to the owners of the planned orbital resort. Spacefarers can book a three-night stay at the Galactic Suite Space Resort for $4.4 million, the Barcelona-based company planning the hotel has said. So far 43 paying guests have already reserved a spot, while more than 200 have expressed interest, Galactic Suite Ltd's CEO Xavier Claramunt told Reuters.
Despite Claramunt's confidence, critics have questioned whether the hotel can really be ready so soon, and whether the company has enough money to see the plan through. Claramunt said an anonymous billionaire has fronted the company $3 billion to finance the project. (11/4)
Virgin Galactic Considers New Satellite Design (Source: Flight Global)
Virgin Galactic's proposed LauncherOne rocket may orbit a new mini satellite designed specifically for the launch vehicle to increase the payload's useful mass for power, propulsion or instruments. In conventional rockets adaptors integrate a spacecraft with the launcher but that means useful payload mass is reduced. A decision about a LauncherOne specific satellite could come following internal studies or Virgin Galactic's expected mid-2010 request for industry proposals.
A previous Virgin Galactic study concluded an all-composite two-stage rocket, air launched by the WhiteKnight Two carrier aircraft, could orbit a 200kg (440lb) satellite. Whatever the decision Virgin Galactic's target launch price is $2 million and the spaceline's president Will Whitehorn told the International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon that the service could be operating a year after his suborbital tourism was up and running.
Over the next six to seven months Whitehorn's new general manager for small satellite launch, Adam Baker, will develop a business plan. Speaking to Aerojet, Northrop Grumman and others Baker will investigate whether the rocket is outsourced or produced in-house, what type of launcher it will be, if its expendable or reusable, and if its payload will be designed specifically for LauncherOne. (11/4)
Countdown Begins for NASA's Uncertain Future (Source: MSNBC)
Is America's space effort due for a major course correction? Or is staying the course and sticking with NASA's five-year-old plan to return to the moon the best strategy? In the wake of an independent panel's report on future spaceflight, the answers to those big questions about the nation's next giant leap ... or smaller step ... in outer space are now being debated in the White House and on Capitol Hill. And although projecting the outcome is murky business at best, the countdown is ticking down toward multibillion-dollar decisions that need to be made.
In short, the gearheads have had their say. Now it's up to the politicians. If it were up to the Augustine Panel (the gearheads) the space effort would likely be in for an extreme makeover. Although their mission was only to lay out the options for future exploration, rather than recommend which option to take, the way the options were framed in their 155-page report suggested a dramatically different path for NASA.
That wasn't necessarily the takeaway for the politicians, however. In Congress, the influential players in space policy tend to come from places where the jobs are. The prevailing view among those player was that $3 billion a year in additional funding would fix what ails the current space program, and that no further course correction was necessary. Click here to view the article. (11/4)
NRO To Loft Several Big Satellites by Mid-2011 (Source: Space News)
Several high-priority and high-priced satellites crucial to U.S. national security are slated to launch over the next 15 to 18 months, according to Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). During a keynote address here at the Strategic Space Symposium, Carlson did not provide details of the upcoming missions. Most of the NRO’s satellite programs are classified. Carlson noted the launches to make the point that the NRO continues to perform its mission despite having had its struggles in recent years. (11/4)
GeoEye Dodging Space Junk With Increasing Frequency (Source: Space News)
Commercial imaging satellite operator GeoEye has had to move its 10-year-old Ikonos spacecraft seven times to avoid orbital debris, according to the company’s chief operating officer, who said the problem is only growing worse. The company has had to take evasive actions four times with its GeoEye-1 satellite, which has been on orbit just over a year. He said space situational awareness information is crucial and that the more accurate the data, the less fuel a satellite has to consume to avoid a potentially catastrophic collision. The fewer evasive actions a satellite has to take, the longer it can last on orbit, he said.
Space situational awareness continues to be a point of emphasis for the U.S. military, particularly in the wake of a collision early this year between an active Iridium communications satellite and a spent Russian craft. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Larry James, commander of the 14th Air Force and U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space, said the U.S. military’s Space Surveillance Network is tracking 21,000 objects in Earth orbit and is performing close monitoring of some 800 maneuverable satellites for collision risk assessment. Speaking with reporters here at the symposium, James said the goal is to increase the number of closely monitored satellites to 1,300 by the end of the year. (11/4)
Posey Revives Campaign to Keep Shuttle Flying (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A freshman lawmaker from Florida this week called on Congress and the White House to consider flying the space shuttle beyond 2011, an option for NASA’s future that largely has been ignored since an independent space panel issued its recommendations last month. In a letter to congressional appropriators, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, asked that they include language in 2010 spending bills that would stop NASA from doing anything that “would preclude the possibility of flying the Shuttle beyond the current flight manifest.” “During this time of uncertainty and in light of the Augustine Committee’s clear indication that Shuttle extension is integral to closing the gap, this request is quite reasonable,” Posey wrote. (11/4)
Elevator To Space? They're Really Trying (Source: WESH)
Rocketing into space? Some think an elevator might be the way to go. That's the future goal of this week's $2 million Space Elevator Games in the Mojave Desert. In a major test of the concept, robotic machines powered by laser beams will try to climb a cable suspended from a helicopter hovering more than a half-mile (one kilometer) high. Three teams have qualified to participate in the event on the dry lakebed near NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. Attempts were expected from early Wednesday through Thursday. Funded by a space agency program to explore bold technology, the contest is a step toward bringing the idea of a space elevator out of the realm of science fiction and into reality. (11/4)
Bill Posey Criticizes Obama for Misleading NASA & Brevard County (Source: Examiner)
Florida Congressman Bill Posey passionately voiced his pro-NASA stance during an interview with local conservative radio talk show host, Bill Mick, of Bill Mick Live, on WMMB AM. Posey used the platform to highlight the unique aspects of the Ares Program and other aspects of NASA, but Posey's positive tone changed when he was asked about President Obama's position on NASA. Posey said: "When the President appointed the Augustine Commission and tasked them, he put the restraint on it that, 'remember now, your recommendations must be within my proposed budget'.... So they were tasked with an impossible job of coming up with sufficient product." (11/4)
StratCom Aims to Curb Space Arms Race With China (Source: Omaha World-Herald)
The leader of the U.S. Strategic Command hopes a recent tour he gave of Bellevue’s Offutt Air Force Base will lead to decreased American-Chinese competition in space. Gen. Kevin Chilton gave that tour last week to Gen. Xu Caihou, China’s second-highest ranking uniformed officer, explaining StratCom’s role and showing his guest around the base near Bellevue. Chilton, speaking at Tuesday’s space conference held at the Qwest Center Omaha, said he hopes the visit proves to be the beginning of friendly talks between the United States and China — talks that could shed light on Chinese intentions as they beef up their space-based satellite and weaponry programs.
“We’re looking for opportunities to begin follow-up dialogue,” Chilton said. “I don’t think either country ... is interested in a future arms race.” Recent hints from China suggest the Chinese might be interested in challenging American superiority in space. Earlier this week, the leader of China’s air force called a military competition in space “inevitable” during an interview that some experts viewed as a potentially aggressive shift in Chinese policy. (11/4)
India's Space Ambitions Taking Off (Source: Washington Post)
In this seaside village, the children of farmers and fishermen aspire to become something that their impoverished parents never thought possible: astronauts. Through community-based programs, India's space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas such as this one, helping to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation's first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore.
"I want to be prepared in space sciences so I can go to the moon when India picks its astronauts," said Lakshmi Kannan, 15, pushing her long braids out of her face and clutching her science textbook. Lakshmi's hopes are not unlike India's ambitions, writ small. For years, the country has focused its efforts in space on practical applications -- using satellites to collect information on natural disasters, for instance. But India is now moving beyond that traditional focus and has planned its first manned space mission in 2015.
The ambitions of the 46-year-old national space program could vastly expand India's international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China. China, the only country besides the United States and Russia to have launched a manned spacecraft, did so six years ago. (11/4)
More Secrets of Mercury Unveiled in September Flyby (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The flyby of Mercury made by a small NASA probe in late September was scientifically rewarding, despite a glitch that squandered half of the planned observations at the innermost planet, scientists said Tuesday. The primary purpose of the close encounter, to use Mercury's gravity to bend the spacecraft's trajectory, was perfectly executed. It was more accurate than all six planetary flybys conducted by the $446 million MESSENGER mission since its launch in 2004, according to Sean Solomon, the mission's principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. (11/4)
NASA's Constellation Program has recommended dropping a planned follow-on to last week's successful Ares I-X flight-test because it doesn't have the funding necessary to get an upper stage engine ready in time. Instead, the Ares I-X engineering team will study the costs and benefits of going ahead with a 2012 launch previously dubbed "Ares I-X prime" that would flight-test a full five-segment Ares I solid-fuel first stage and the Orion crew exploration vehicle launch abort system at high altitude, according to Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley.
Hanley said on Nov. 3 he has recommended to NASA headquarters that the Ares I-Y test planned for March 2014 be canceled because the J-2X engine needed to propel the upper stage won't be ready in time to support that test date. The problem is money, he said. (11/4)
Space Hotel Takes Reservations for 2012 Opening (Source: Space.com)
Some forward-looking vacationers have already booked a stay at the first space hotel, which is on track to open in 2012, according to the owners of the planned orbital resort. Spacefarers can book a three-night stay at the Galactic Suite Space Resort for $4.4 million, the Barcelona-based company planning the hotel has said. So far 43 paying guests have already reserved a spot, while more than 200 have expressed interest, Galactic Suite Ltd's CEO Xavier Claramunt told Reuters.
Despite Claramunt's confidence, critics have questioned whether the hotel can really be ready so soon, and whether the company has enough money to see the plan through. Claramunt said an anonymous billionaire has fronted the company $3 billion to finance the project. (11/4)
Virgin Galactic Considers New Satellite Design (Source: Flight Global)
Virgin Galactic's proposed LauncherOne rocket may orbit a new mini satellite designed specifically for the launch vehicle to increase the payload's useful mass for power, propulsion or instruments. In conventional rockets adaptors integrate a spacecraft with the launcher but that means useful payload mass is reduced. A decision about a LauncherOne specific satellite could come following internal studies or Virgin Galactic's expected mid-2010 request for industry proposals.
A previous Virgin Galactic study concluded an all-composite two-stage rocket, air launched by the WhiteKnight Two carrier aircraft, could orbit a 200kg (440lb) satellite. Whatever the decision Virgin Galactic's target launch price is $2 million and the spaceline's president Will Whitehorn told the International Astronautical Congress in Daejeon that the service could be operating a year after his suborbital tourism was up and running.
Over the next six to seven months Whitehorn's new general manager for small satellite launch, Adam Baker, will develop a business plan. Speaking to Aerojet, Northrop Grumman and others Baker will investigate whether the rocket is outsourced or produced in-house, what type of launcher it will be, if its expendable or reusable, and if its payload will be designed specifically for LauncherOne. (11/4)
Countdown Begins for NASA's Uncertain Future (Source: MSNBC)
Is America's space effort due for a major course correction? Or is staying the course and sticking with NASA's five-year-old plan to return to the moon the best strategy? In the wake of an independent panel's report on future spaceflight, the answers to those big questions about the nation's next giant leap ... or smaller step ... in outer space are now being debated in the White House and on Capitol Hill. And although projecting the outcome is murky business at best, the countdown is ticking down toward multibillion-dollar decisions that need to be made.
In short, the gearheads have had their say. Now it's up to the politicians. If it were up to the Augustine Panel (the gearheads) the space effort would likely be in for an extreme makeover. Although their mission was only to lay out the options for future exploration, rather than recommend which option to take, the way the options were framed in their 155-page report suggested a dramatically different path for NASA.
That wasn't necessarily the takeaway for the politicians, however. In Congress, the influential players in space policy tend to come from places where the jobs are. The prevailing view among those player was that $3 billion a year in additional funding would fix what ails the current space program, and that no further course correction was necessary. Click here to view the article. (11/4)
NRO To Loft Several Big Satellites by Mid-2011 (Source: Space News)
Several high-priority and high-priced satellites crucial to U.S. national security are slated to launch over the next 15 to 18 months, according to Bruce Carlson, director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). During a keynote address here at the Strategic Space Symposium, Carlson did not provide details of the upcoming missions. Most of the NRO’s satellite programs are classified. Carlson noted the launches to make the point that the NRO continues to perform its mission despite having had its struggles in recent years. (11/4)
GeoEye Dodging Space Junk With Increasing Frequency (Source: Space News)
Commercial imaging satellite operator GeoEye has had to move its 10-year-old Ikonos spacecraft seven times to avoid orbital debris, according to the company’s chief operating officer, who said the problem is only growing worse. The company has had to take evasive actions four times with its GeoEye-1 satellite, which has been on orbit just over a year. He said space situational awareness information is crucial and that the more accurate the data, the less fuel a satellite has to consume to avoid a potentially catastrophic collision. The fewer evasive actions a satellite has to take, the longer it can last on orbit, he said.
Space situational awareness continues to be a point of emphasis for the U.S. military, particularly in the wake of a collision early this year between an active Iridium communications satellite and a spent Russian craft. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Larry James, commander of the 14th Air Force and U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space, said the U.S. military’s Space Surveillance Network is tracking 21,000 objects in Earth orbit and is performing close monitoring of some 800 maneuverable satellites for collision risk assessment. Speaking with reporters here at the symposium, James said the goal is to increase the number of closely monitored satellites to 1,300 by the end of the year. (11/4)
Posey Revives Campaign to Keep Shuttle Flying (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A freshman lawmaker from Florida this week called on Congress and the White House to consider flying the space shuttle beyond 2011, an option for NASA’s future that largely has been ignored since an independent space panel issued its recommendations last month. In a letter to congressional appropriators, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, asked that they include language in 2010 spending bills that would stop NASA from doing anything that “would preclude the possibility of flying the Shuttle beyond the current flight manifest.” “During this time of uncertainty and in light of the Augustine Committee’s clear indication that Shuttle extension is integral to closing the gap, this request is quite reasonable,” Posey wrote. (11/4)
Elevator To Space? They're Really Trying (Source: WESH)
Rocketing into space? Some think an elevator might be the way to go. That's the future goal of this week's $2 million Space Elevator Games in the Mojave Desert. In a major test of the concept, robotic machines powered by laser beams will try to climb a cable suspended from a helicopter hovering more than a half-mile (one kilometer) high. Three teams have qualified to participate in the event on the dry lakebed near NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. Attempts were expected from early Wednesday through Thursday. Funded by a space agency program to explore bold technology, the contest is a step toward bringing the idea of a space elevator out of the realm of science fiction and into reality. (11/4)
Bill Posey Criticizes Obama for Misleading NASA & Brevard County (Source: Examiner)
Florida Congressman Bill Posey passionately voiced his pro-NASA stance during an interview with local conservative radio talk show host, Bill Mick, of Bill Mick Live, on WMMB AM. Posey used the platform to highlight the unique aspects of the Ares Program and other aspects of NASA, but Posey's positive tone changed when he was asked about President Obama's position on NASA. Posey said: "When the President appointed the Augustine Commission and tasked them, he put the restraint on it that, 'remember now, your recommendations must be within my proposed budget'.... So they were tasked with an impossible job of coming up with sufficient product." (11/4)
StratCom Aims to Curb Space Arms Race With China (Source: Omaha World-Herald)
The leader of the U.S. Strategic Command hopes a recent tour he gave of Bellevue’s Offutt Air Force Base will lead to decreased American-Chinese competition in space. Gen. Kevin Chilton gave that tour last week to Gen. Xu Caihou, China’s second-highest ranking uniformed officer, explaining StratCom’s role and showing his guest around the base near Bellevue. Chilton, speaking at Tuesday’s space conference held at the Qwest Center Omaha, said he hopes the visit proves to be the beginning of friendly talks between the United States and China — talks that could shed light on Chinese intentions as they beef up their space-based satellite and weaponry programs.
“We’re looking for opportunities to begin follow-up dialogue,” Chilton said. “I don’t think either country ... is interested in a future arms race.” Recent hints from China suggest the Chinese might be interested in challenging American superiority in space. Earlier this week, the leader of China’s air force called a military competition in space “inevitable” during an interview that some experts viewed as a potentially aggressive shift in Chinese policy. (11/4)
India's Space Ambitions Taking Off (Source: Washington Post)
In this seaside village, the children of farmers and fishermen aspire to become something that their impoverished parents never thought possible: astronauts. Through community-based programs, India's space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas such as this one, helping to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation's first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore.
"I want to be prepared in space sciences so I can go to the moon when India picks its astronauts," said Lakshmi Kannan, 15, pushing her long braids out of her face and clutching her science textbook. Lakshmi's hopes are not unlike India's ambitions, writ small. For years, the country has focused its efforts in space on practical applications -- using satellites to collect information on natural disasters, for instance. But India is now moving beyond that traditional focus and has planned its first manned space mission in 2015.
The ambitions of the 46-year-old national space program could vastly expand India's international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China. China, the only country besides the United States and Russia to have launched a manned spacecraft, did so six years ago. (11/4)
More Secrets of Mercury Unveiled in September Flyby (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The flyby of Mercury made by a small NASA probe in late September was scientifically rewarding, despite a glitch that squandered half of the planned observations at the innermost planet, scientists said Tuesday. The primary purpose of the close encounter, to use Mercury's gravity to bend the spacecraft's trajectory, was perfectly executed. It was more accurate than all six planetary flybys conducted by the $446 million MESSENGER mission since its launch in 2004, according to Sean Solomon, the mission's principal investigator at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. (11/4)
November 3 News Items
KSC Scientists Model Launch Site Debris (Source: WIRED)
Dangerous debris near rocket launches could be tracked in real time by combining tricks from particle colliders, moon landings and vulture tracking, a new study finds. KSC Physicist Philip Metzger and colleagues describe a technique to plot the paths and determine the densities of worrisome detritus kicked up during launch. This method could help flight engineers know instantly which pieces of debris threaten the spacecraft.
The need for better tracking systems during launch was highlighted during the Space Shuttle Discovery launch in May 2008, when several thousand bricks blew out the end of the flame trench under the shuttle. Simultaneously, a mysterious piece of debris flew high into the air near the shuttle, apparently from the flame trench. Had the mystery object been a brick, it could have damaged the shuttle and put the crew at risk.
To identify the object, Metzger and colleagues took advantage of NASA’s bird watching system. In 2005, during the first launch after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, a shuttle was threatened by another flying menace: a vulture that smacked into the external tank during takeoff. The object was too light to be a brick, but it was the same density as a piece of foam from a solid rocket booster. “At no point was the orbiter in any danger” from the foam, says Bob Carilli a coauthor of the study and engineer with NASA contractor United Space Alliance. (11/3)
Chinese General Sees Inevitable Military Space Race (Source: Financial Times)
China’s air force chief has called military competition in space “inevitable”, a departure from Beijing’s past insistence that it is not pursuing space programmes for military purposes. The remarks by General Xu Qiliang, head of the People’s Liberation Army air force, published in several state media, are a reminder of another area of potential future rivalry between the US and China. In addition, they indicate increased competition within China's military.
“Competition between military forces is developing towards the sky and space, it is extending beyond the atmosphere and even into outer space. This development is a historical inevitability and cannot be undone,” said Gen Xu according to Xinhua, the official news agency. “The militarisation of the sky and space is a challenge to the peace of mankind. In the face of this challenge, you don’t have a voice unless you have power. Only if you have strong power can you protect and safeguard peace,” Gen Xu was quoted as saying. (11/3)
China's Military Eyes Future in Space, Air: Air Force Commander (Source: Xinhua)
China will develop an air force with integrated capabilities for both offensive and defensive operations in space as well as in air, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Commander Xu Qiliang said. Calling militarization in the space and in air "a threat to the mankind," Xu said China must develop a strong force in the two arenas in order to face challenges of that threat. Superiority in space and in air would mean, to a certain extent, superiority over the land and the oceans, Xu said. "As the air force of a peace-loving country, we must forge our swords and shields in order to protect peace," he said. (11/3)
China's Military Making Strides in Space: US General (Source: Space Daily)
China's military has made dramatic progress in space over the past decade and the goals of its program remain unclear, a top American general said on Tuesday. Citing Beijing's advances in space, General Kevin Chilton, head of US Strategic Command, said it was crucial to cultivate US-China military relations to better understand China's intentions.
"With regard to China's capabilities, I think anyone who's familiar with this business -- and particularly our history in this business over the years -- would have to be absolutely amazed at the advancement that China has made in such a short period of time, whether that be in their unmanned program or the manned program," Chilton told reporters in a teleconference, referring to Beijing's space program. "They have rapidly advanced over the last ten years," he said from Omaha, Nebraska. (11/3)
Harris Completes Qualification Testing Of Navy SATCOM Terminal (Source: Space Daily)
Harris has successfully completed system qualification testing of a satellite terminal that will provide U.S. Navy personnel onboard frigates, cruisers and destroyers with access to the Internet, video and other broadband services. Completion of the testing moves the Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) Unit Level Variant (ULV) contract into the initial production phase. Under the contract, Harris will supply up to 55 advanced, 1.3-meter satellite communications terminals with X- and Ku-band capabilities. (11/3)
Russia Leads Nuclear Space Race After U.S. Drops Out (Source: WIRED)
The Russian space agency may build a nuclear-powered spacecraft with the blessing of the country’s leader, Russian and international media reported Thursday. The craft would cost $600 million and Russian scientists claim it could be ready as early as 2012. Building a nuclear-powered spacecraft is feasible, said Patrick McDaniel, a nuclear engineer and co-director of the University of New Mexico’s Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, but probably not in the short time frame that the Russians have proposed. “To have a test article that they could test on the ground, that’s very reasonable,” McDaniel said. “To have a completed system, that’s highly unlikely.” (11/3)
Pentagon Eyes Crash Analysis on 1,300 Satellites (Source: Reuters)
The U.S. military is now tracking 800 maneuverable satellites on a daily basis for possible collisions and expects to add 500 more non-maneuvering satellites by year's end. The Air Force began upgrading its ability to predict possible collisions after a dead Russian military satellite and a commercial U.S. Iridium satellite collided on Feb. 10.
General Kevin Chilton called the collision the "seminal event" in the satellite industry during the past year and said it destroyed any sense that space was so vast that collisions were highly improbable. Before the collision, he said they were tracking less than 100 satellites a day. The crash, which was not predicted by the U.S. military or private tracking groups, underscored the vulnerability of U.S. satellites, which are used for a huge array of military and civilian purposes. Chilton said the Air Force was tracking more than 20,000 satellites, spent rocket stages and other objects in space, up from just 14,000 a few years ago. (11/3)
Space Junk Piles up Into Threat to Future Launches (Source: New Scientist)
A blizzard of space debris is going to have a major impact on the future economics of space flight. That was the prediction made this week by Hugh Lewis of the University of Southampton, UK, at the European Air and Space Conference in Manchester. His projections indicate that the number of close encounters between objects in orbit will rise 50 percent in the next decade, and quadruple by 2059. Countermeasures will add greatly to the cost of future missions.
The number of pieces of space debris has risen by 40 per cent in the past four years alone. The US air force Space Command now tracks 19,000 orbiting objects that are 10 centimetres or more across - including around 800 working satellites - and estimates that there are 500,000 smaller fragments in orbit. (11/3)
Editorial: Scrap Ares-1 (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Wednesday's launch of the test vehicle for NASA's Ares I rocket was an impressive sight. More than 30 stories high, the thin white rocket shot off the launch pad like an arrow piercing the sky above Kennedy Space Center. If U.S. space-policy decisions were dictated based solely on spectacle, the Ares I would be a shoo-in as NASA's next manned vehicle. Unfortunately for fans of the rocket, cost, design and timing also matter. (11/2)
Trained in the U.S., Scientist Became China's 'Rocket King' (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Known in China as the "Father of Chinese Aerospace" or simply the "Rocket King," Qian Xuesen helped launch his native country's missile program. Mr. Qian, who died Oct. 31 at the age of 98, came to the U.S. in 1935 as a student and became one of the leading scientists working on the country's nascent missile program. As a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in the 1940s, Mr. Qian helped develop the first U.S. solid-fuel missiles during World War II. But his career in the U.S. came to an abrupt halt in the 1950s, when he was accused of having Communist ties and ordered deported. After battling the allegations for several years, he returned to China, where he became the leader of a coterie of Chinese-born, U.S.-trained missile scientists, and created a program for China to educate its own aerospace engineers. (11/3)
Japan Drops Space Trash on New Zealand (Source: Otago Daily Times)
Japan's first unmanned space cargo vehicle safely re-entered the atmosphere 120km above New Zealand yesterday with its load of garbage from the International Space Station. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, apparently disintegrated and burned up on its descent toward the ocean east of New Zealand. The Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile is commonly used as a dumping ground for human waste and other garbage from the space station. (11/3)
North Carolina University to Host NewSpace Commerce Forum (Source: Carolina Newswire)
Elizabeth City State University, supported by the North Carolina Aerospace Alliance, North Carolina’s Northeast Commission, and NASA Space Grant, will host North Carolina’s first entrepreneurial space industry (NewSpace) forum on Nov. 12. The forum has two goals: 1) Educate state and local government, business, and academic leaders about the economic development potential of the NewSpace industry; and 2) Develop a "next-steps" strategy for the development of an indigenous NewSpace industry that is integrated with the state's existing aviation- and aerospace-related industry clusters. (11/3)
Dangerous debris near rocket launches could be tracked in real time by combining tricks from particle colliders, moon landings and vulture tracking, a new study finds. KSC Physicist Philip Metzger and colleagues describe a technique to plot the paths and determine the densities of worrisome detritus kicked up during launch. This method could help flight engineers know instantly which pieces of debris threaten the spacecraft.
The need for better tracking systems during launch was highlighted during the Space Shuttle Discovery launch in May 2008, when several thousand bricks blew out the end of the flame trench under the shuttle. Simultaneously, a mysterious piece of debris flew high into the air near the shuttle, apparently from the flame trench. Had the mystery object been a brick, it could have damaged the shuttle and put the crew at risk.
To identify the object, Metzger and colleagues took advantage of NASA’s bird watching system. In 2005, during the first launch after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, a shuttle was threatened by another flying menace: a vulture that smacked into the external tank during takeoff. The object was too light to be a brick, but it was the same density as a piece of foam from a solid rocket booster. “At no point was the orbiter in any danger” from the foam, says Bob Carilli a coauthor of the study and engineer with NASA contractor United Space Alliance. (11/3)
Chinese General Sees Inevitable Military Space Race (Source: Financial Times)
China’s air force chief has called military competition in space “inevitable”, a departure from Beijing’s past insistence that it is not pursuing space programmes for military purposes. The remarks by General Xu Qiliang, head of the People’s Liberation Army air force, published in several state media, are a reminder of another area of potential future rivalry between the US and China. In addition, they indicate increased competition within China's military.
“Competition between military forces is developing towards the sky and space, it is extending beyond the atmosphere and even into outer space. This development is a historical inevitability and cannot be undone,” said Gen Xu according to Xinhua, the official news agency. “The militarisation of the sky and space is a challenge to the peace of mankind. In the face of this challenge, you don’t have a voice unless you have power. Only if you have strong power can you protect and safeguard peace,” Gen Xu was quoted as saying. (11/3)
China's Military Eyes Future in Space, Air: Air Force Commander (Source: Xinhua)
China will develop an air force with integrated capabilities for both offensive and defensive operations in space as well as in air, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Commander Xu Qiliang said. Calling militarization in the space and in air "a threat to the mankind," Xu said China must develop a strong force in the two arenas in order to face challenges of that threat. Superiority in space and in air would mean, to a certain extent, superiority over the land and the oceans, Xu said. "As the air force of a peace-loving country, we must forge our swords and shields in order to protect peace," he said. (11/3)
China's Military Making Strides in Space: US General (Source: Space Daily)
China's military has made dramatic progress in space over the past decade and the goals of its program remain unclear, a top American general said on Tuesday. Citing Beijing's advances in space, General Kevin Chilton, head of US Strategic Command, said it was crucial to cultivate US-China military relations to better understand China's intentions.
"With regard to China's capabilities, I think anyone who's familiar with this business -- and particularly our history in this business over the years -- would have to be absolutely amazed at the advancement that China has made in such a short period of time, whether that be in their unmanned program or the manned program," Chilton told reporters in a teleconference, referring to Beijing's space program. "They have rapidly advanced over the last ten years," he said from Omaha, Nebraska. (11/3)
Harris Completes Qualification Testing Of Navy SATCOM Terminal (Source: Space Daily)
Harris has successfully completed system qualification testing of a satellite terminal that will provide U.S. Navy personnel onboard frigates, cruisers and destroyers with access to the Internet, video and other broadband services. Completion of the testing moves the Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) Unit Level Variant (ULV) contract into the initial production phase. Under the contract, Harris will supply up to 55 advanced, 1.3-meter satellite communications terminals with X- and Ku-band capabilities. (11/3)
Russia Leads Nuclear Space Race After U.S. Drops Out (Source: WIRED)
The Russian space agency may build a nuclear-powered spacecraft with the blessing of the country’s leader, Russian and international media reported Thursday. The craft would cost $600 million and Russian scientists claim it could be ready as early as 2012. Building a nuclear-powered spacecraft is feasible, said Patrick McDaniel, a nuclear engineer and co-director of the University of New Mexico’s Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, but probably not in the short time frame that the Russians have proposed. “To have a test article that they could test on the ground, that’s very reasonable,” McDaniel said. “To have a completed system, that’s highly unlikely.” (11/3)
Pentagon Eyes Crash Analysis on 1,300 Satellites (Source: Reuters)
The U.S. military is now tracking 800 maneuverable satellites on a daily basis for possible collisions and expects to add 500 more non-maneuvering satellites by year's end. The Air Force began upgrading its ability to predict possible collisions after a dead Russian military satellite and a commercial U.S. Iridium satellite collided on Feb. 10.
General Kevin Chilton called the collision the "seminal event" in the satellite industry during the past year and said it destroyed any sense that space was so vast that collisions were highly improbable. Before the collision, he said they were tracking less than 100 satellites a day. The crash, which was not predicted by the U.S. military or private tracking groups, underscored the vulnerability of U.S. satellites, which are used for a huge array of military and civilian purposes. Chilton said the Air Force was tracking more than 20,000 satellites, spent rocket stages and other objects in space, up from just 14,000 a few years ago. (11/3)
Space Junk Piles up Into Threat to Future Launches (Source: New Scientist)
A blizzard of space debris is going to have a major impact on the future economics of space flight. That was the prediction made this week by Hugh Lewis of the University of Southampton, UK, at the European Air and Space Conference in Manchester. His projections indicate that the number of close encounters between objects in orbit will rise 50 percent in the next decade, and quadruple by 2059. Countermeasures will add greatly to the cost of future missions.
The number of pieces of space debris has risen by 40 per cent in the past four years alone. The US air force Space Command now tracks 19,000 orbiting objects that are 10 centimetres or more across - including around 800 working satellites - and estimates that there are 500,000 smaller fragments in orbit. (11/3)
Editorial: Scrap Ares-1 (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Wednesday's launch of the test vehicle for NASA's Ares I rocket was an impressive sight. More than 30 stories high, the thin white rocket shot off the launch pad like an arrow piercing the sky above Kennedy Space Center. If U.S. space-policy decisions were dictated based solely on spectacle, the Ares I would be a shoo-in as NASA's next manned vehicle. Unfortunately for fans of the rocket, cost, design and timing also matter. (11/2)
Trained in the U.S., Scientist Became China's 'Rocket King' (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Known in China as the "Father of Chinese Aerospace" or simply the "Rocket King," Qian Xuesen helped launch his native country's missile program. Mr. Qian, who died Oct. 31 at the age of 98, came to the U.S. in 1935 as a student and became one of the leading scientists working on the country's nascent missile program. As a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in the 1940s, Mr. Qian helped develop the first U.S. solid-fuel missiles during World War II. But his career in the U.S. came to an abrupt halt in the 1950s, when he was accused of having Communist ties and ordered deported. After battling the allegations for several years, he returned to China, where he became the leader of a coterie of Chinese-born, U.S.-trained missile scientists, and created a program for China to educate its own aerospace engineers. (11/3)
Japan Drops Space Trash on New Zealand (Source: Otago Daily Times)
Japan's first unmanned space cargo vehicle safely re-entered the atmosphere 120km above New Zealand yesterday with its load of garbage from the International Space Station. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, apparently disintegrated and burned up on its descent toward the ocean east of New Zealand. The Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile is commonly used as a dumping ground for human waste and other garbage from the space station. (11/3)
North Carolina University to Host NewSpace Commerce Forum (Source: Carolina Newswire)
Elizabeth City State University, supported by the North Carolina Aerospace Alliance, North Carolina’s Northeast Commission, and NASA Space Grant, will host North Carolina’s first entrepreneurial space industry (NewSpace) forum on Nov. 12. The forum has two goals: 1) Educate state and local government, business, and academic leaders about the economic development potential of the NewSpace industry; and 2) Develop a "next-steps" strategy for the development of an indigenous NewSpace industry that is integrated with the state's existing aviation- and aerospace-related industry clusters. (11/3)
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