May 21, 2013

X Prize Eyes New Contests for Spaceflight Innovation (Source: Space.com)
The organization whose big-money prizes helped get the private spaceflight industry off the ground isn't done issuing high-profile challenges to spur exploration of the final frontier. The nonprofit X Prize Foundation, which awarded $10 million to a groundbreaking private spaceship in 2004 and is currently offering $30 million in prize money for a private race to the moon, will be announcing further spaceflight challenges in the future, said Gregg Maryniak, the organization’s corporate secretary. (5/20)

NASA Launching Cosmic Experiment From Wallops Island Spaceport (Source: Space Daily)
When did the first stars and galaxies form in the universe? How brightly did they burn their nuclear fuel?\ Scientists will seek to gain answers to these questions with the launch of the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRIment (CIBER) on a Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket between 11 and 11:59 p.m. EDT, June 4 from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. (5/21)

Johnson Space Center Could Play Part in Asteroid Mission (Source: Aviation Week)
According to Charles Bolden and JSC Director Ellen Ochoa, JSC could play a role coordinating and executing asteroid exploration initiatives highlighted in the agency's proposed $17.7 billion budget. Orion is set for a 2021 mission to visit a small asteroid. "JSC has been involved for the last several months in looking at the feasibility, how we might carry this out. We will be one of the prime integrators and coordinators, I believe. So there is lots of good work in the budget for the Johnson Space Center," Ochoa said. (5/20)

NASA Administrator Visits California Centers (Source: NASA)
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visits all three of the agency's centers in California this week, highlighting progress on the asteroid mission, commercial crew transportation and space technology development. Bolden will tour of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft on May 22 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

On May 23 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Bolden will see a prototype ion thruster being tested for NASA's mission to capture and relocate an asteroid. On Friday, May 24, at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Bolden, Ames Center Director S. Pete Worden and Rep. Mike Honda (17th congressional district) of California will visit Ames' Space Shop to see work being done on PhoneSat nanosatellite technology and 3-D printing which is a critical part of President Obama's push for building a strong American manufacturing sector. (5/20)

Vanderbilt Takes Top Prize in NASA Student Launch Challenge (Source: NASA)
The Aerospace Club of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., took first prize in the 2013 annual NASA Student Launch Projects challenge, in which student teams design, build and fly small rockets with science payloads to an altitude of 1 mile and return them safely to Earth. After two consecutive third-place finishes, Vanderbilt beat 35 other colleges and universities to win the $5,000 top prize, provided by ATK. The University of Louisville in Kentucky and Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, won second and third place, respectively, in the April 21 "launch fest" near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. (5/20)

Launch of Military Satellite From Florida Delayed a Day (Source: Florida Today)
This week's planned launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral has been pushed back by a day to Thursday. The rocket carrying a military communications satellite is now targeting liftoff at 8:27 p.m. Thursday, the opening of a 32-minute window. The official forecast shows a 40 percent chance of favorable weather conditions. (5/20)

Kickstarting Our Interstellar Future (Source: Discovery)
On Aug. 15, 2013, some of the most forward-thinking experts in interstellar science will accumulate in Dallas, Texas, for the world’s first Starship Congress. Headed by Icarus Interstellar, a non-profit group motivated to research new space technologies, the Congress will be a forum for “scientists, physicists, engineers, researchers, urban designers, representatives from international space programs and present-day commercial space operators, as well as popular and well-known interstellar speakers and space journalists” to “share their visions for how the future of spaceflight and exploration may unfold.”

But like any conference, funding is needed. So this weekend, Icarus Interstellar began a Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 for the Starship Congress. Should the campaign be fully funded (before the deadline of June 16), donors will receive a range of goodies from free Congress tickets to becoming an official sponsor for the event. (5/21)

How Kepler Could Die and Keep Giving (Source: Discovery)
NASA hasn’t given up on resurrecting its planet-hunting Kepler space telescope, but even if the observatory can’t be saved, scientists expect it already has accomplished its goal of finding a habitable, Earth-like planet. They just don’t know it yet. “We have quite a bit of data that needs to be fully processed,” said William Borucki, lead Kepler scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. (5/21)

Globalstar Reaches Debt Deal with Bond Holders (Source: Space News)
Mobile satellite services operator Globalstar on May 20 said it has reached an exchange agreement with bond holders and is nearing a broad debt-restructuring agreement with the French export-credit agency, Coface, to give the company time to rebuild its business.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Covington, La.-based Globalstar, which recently launched a second-generation of 24 satellites into low Earth orbit, said the Coface agreement, once concluded, will delay most principal repayments until 2016. (5/21)

Editorial: Stay on Top of the James Webb Space Telescope (Source: Space News)
During an April 23 hearing that focused primarily on NASA’s strategic human spaceflight activities, House Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) asked NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to comment on reports of instrument delivery delays on the agency’s flagship astronomy observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope. Mr. Bolden’s response: “That’s news to me.”

That was the wrong answer. Wrong not because it isn’t true — it’s perfectly plausible that Mr. Bolden had not been informed about any new issues with the program, perhaps because there are none, or at least none that might threaten its schedule. Indeed, Mr. Bolden’s response was one that is commonly used to indicate some measure of surprise at the question or statement that prompted it.

But therein lies the problem. Clearly the head of an agency with a $17 billion annual budget cannot be expected to keep close track of all of its programs, even flight projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars. But this is the James Webb Space Telescope, by far NASA’s biggest science development program, which has a history of massive cost overruns, lengthy delays and a price tag that at last check was a whopping $8.8 billion. (5/20)

Editorial: The Prisoner’s Dilemma in Space (Source: Space News)
In 1950, Flood and Drescher at Rand Corp. formalized the “Prisoner’s Dilemma,” which explains why individuals would not cooperate even when it is in their best interests to work together. Since then the classic differential game has been expanded to include social norms and metanorms, many players and diverse rules of engagement, such as whether players might have some knowledge of how the others respond. The fundamental two-player, non-zero-sum game almost always evolves to the worst outcome for all. However, real or societal penalties for defection and understanding that others are willing to cooperate change the outcome.

ESA's Sixth European Conference on Space Debris exposed diligent accomplishment in the world’s space community. Virtually all stakeholders contributed, including the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, the U.K., Spain, South Korea and others in every hemisphere from Scandinavia to Argentina, Europe and Asia. All presented their operational concepts and techniques for perceiving dangerous close approaches among satellites, avoiding collisions and mitigating consequences.

All emphasized the need for essential orbit and satellite architecture data and information. The consequences of the current data deficit were described and quantified. The nature of fragmentation and collisional damage and debris production is much better understood than ever but still evolving. Although estimates of the evolution of the near-Earth debris population do not uniformly predict cascading catastrophe, it is unanimous that the rate of increase of debris must be diminished and that action is necessary to mitigate the debris risk to active and productive satellites. (5/20)

Zubrin: NASA’s Asteroid Absurdity (Source: Space News)
NASA recently announced that it has embraced the idea of an asteroid retrieval mission as the central goal of its human spaceflight program for the next decade or two. According to the agency’s leadership, this mission will accomplish a number of important objectives, including delivering a science bonanza, demonstrating a technology useful for planetary defense, creating a large cache of materials in space that can provide in situ resources to support space exploration activities and achieving the president’s goal of flying a mission to a near-Earth asteroid as a way of breaking out of geocentric space and demonstrating human deep-space capabilities necessary for subsequent missions to Mars.

Since this initiative will cost many billions of dollars and, by diverting the entire multibillion-dollar human spaceflight program for decades, impose an opportunity cost amounting to many tens of billions of dollars, it is imperative that these claims be examined critically to see if any of them are true. Let us therefore consider each of them in order. Click here. (5/20)

Are We Alone? (Source: Brisbane Times)
Surely, you might assume, we cannot be alone in the universe. After, all barely a week goes by without scientists unearthing yet another distant exoplanet, as planets outside our solar system are called. The latest discovery, reported in the US journal Science, is of an exoplanet 130 light years away with an atmosphere of water vapour and carbon monoxide. (A light year is the distance travelled by light in one year, namely 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers.)

This mysterious world, known prosaically as HR8799c, was found by splitting its reflected light into different wavelengths to uncover the tell-tale signature of molecules in its atmosphere. Chances of finding life there, at least as we know it, are low: HR8799c harbours no methane which on Earth is emitted by many organisms.

The exoplanet is one of four planetary youngsters, estimated to be between 30 and 100 million years old. They are all hot monsters, with surface temperatures exceeding 1000 degrees and masses ranging from five to 13 times that of our solar system gas giant, Jupiter. Click here. (5/20)

Destructive Rocket Motor Tests in California (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Scaled Composites conducted a static fire of an engine on Friday that startled everyone who heard it at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The nozzle and engine casing ended up separated from the test rig and was on the floor outside the small fence that surrounds the test site. Scaled says that is exactly what they planned to do. The company is describing it as a “a non-flight experimental rocket motor in which flaws had been intentionally introduced to improve knowledge of different design components."

Meanwhile, Scaled says Sierra Nevada Corp. conducted an extended burn on a RocketMotorTwo engine the same day down in Powoy, California. The test log provides no idea how long the burn lasted; like every other entry in the log going back about seven months, no time is given. But, it doesn’t appeared to have blown up. (5/20)

XCOR Flight Planned in New Sci-Fi Movie Production (Source: Screen Daily)
Distributor Cinipix has joined forces with Patricia A Beninati and Michael K Anderson’s Centerboro Productions to produce the sci-fi action film Newcomers. The producers plan to send XCOR Aerospace’s commercial spacecraft the Lynx into space to shoot exclusive footage for the film. Former NASA Astronaut Col Richard A Searfoss will pilot the craft. Newcomers will tell the story of a former NASA Astronaut who saves the Earth from an alien invasion with help from the commercial space industry. (5/20)

Hangar One for Rent: No NASA Ties Needed (Source: Mountain View Voice)
In an unprecedented move for NASA Ames Research Center, historic Hangar One at Moffett Field is being offered up for any use akin to its original purpose -- no ties to NASA's mission required. Officials will  use a legal provision in the National Historic Preservation Act (Section 111) to allow such a deal. The GSA is expected to request proposals this spring for the restoration and long-term lease of Hangar One from NASA as well as the option to operate the Moffett Federal Airfield, which NASA officials have complained is a drain on its budget.

So far only Google's founders have offered to pay the estimated $30-plus million it would cost to restore the 1930s hangar -- stripped to a bare frame last year in a toxic cleanup by the Navy -- in exchange for the right to park their fleet of private planes inside.

"Section 111 gives us unique authority," said David Haase, branch chief of the GSA, in a presentation to members of the Moffett Field Restoration Advisory Board on May 9. "Unlike enhanced use leasing authority NASA has used in the past, this will allow tenants to use the property for any use (they) would want to see within (section 111). Before partners would need to have some direct connection to NASA." He added that "if 111 does not work, I don't know what Plan B is." (5/20)

Historic Preservation Approach Could Be Used for KSC Facilities (Source: SPACErePORT)
Section 111 of the Historic Preservation Act (allowing for the adaptive re-use of historic structures) is being used at NASA Ames to lease-out Hangar One. Meanwhile, NASA KSC faces its own challenges with historically significant facilities. If NASA Ames' use of Section 111 is successful, perhaps NASA KSC can use the same approach.

Section 111 would allow NASA KSC (and the Air Force at CCAFS) to establish and implement alternatives for historic property that are not needed for current agency purposes...if the lease will adequately insure the property's preservation. Lease proceeds can be retained by the agency to help maintain other historic properties (excess proceeds must be given to the Treasury). (5/20)

Flywheel (Source: New York Times)
Reaction wheels like the ones that NASA officials say have failed aboard the Kepler spacecraft, effectively ending its mission to detect potentially habitable planets outside the solar system, are simple devices, at least in concept. But making ones that can survive the rigors of a rocket launching and then spin for a long time to keep a spacecraft properly oriented —- in Kepler’s case, to keep its telescope precisely pointed at the same field of stars —- is difficult.

“Really simply, it’s an electric motor turning a flywheel,” said Doug Sinclair, whose Toronto company, Sinclair Interplanetary, makes tiny reaction wheels for suitcase-size satellites. Kepler’s wheels are bigger because Kepler is bigger (with a mass of more than a ton), but they function in the same way: The rapidly spinning flywheel is accelerated or decelerated, producing a corresponding slow rotation of the spacecraft in one direction or the other. There must be at least three wheels, one on each of three perpendicular axes.

A spacecraft’s thrusters could also be used to control orientation, but there is a limited amount of propellant aboard. Reaction wheels use electricity, which can be produced in essentially unlimited supply by a spacecraft’s solar panels. But in some situations thrusters must still be used. The solar wind can cause a small, constant rotation of the spacecraft that can push reaction wheel to its operational limit. When that happens, a thruster can be fired to rotate the spacecraft in the opposite direction and slow the wheel, a procedure referred to as a “momentum dump.” (5/20)

SES Government Division Shrugs off U.S. Budget Sequestration (Source: Space News)
Satellite fleet operator SES on May 17 said its government division has felt no pain from the U.S. government budget cuts known as sequestration. Luxembourg-based SES reaffirmed its forecast of 4.5 percent revenue and gross-profit growth in 2013 and said it has sold more than half the new capacity on four satellites scheduled for launch by the end of the year. (5/20)

Boldly Go? Can Humanity Afford ‘Star Trek’-Like Space Exploration? (Source: Space.com)
The public has no shortage of enthusiasm for fictional spacefarers, as this weekend's box-office win by the newest "Star Trek" film proves. Yet the real-life U.S. space agency finds itself strapped for cash these days. With federal budgets tightening and NASA feeling the pinch, some space advocates are asking, "Can humans afford to reach the stars?"

Believe it or not, experts are looking into the finances of not just relatively short-term missions to Mars and the moon, but also long-term prospects of 'Trek'-ian proportions. It may be possible to find the money, they say, but it would likely take some policy changes — and those changes could start today. Click here. (5/20)

Governor Vetoes Space Projects (Source: Florida Today)
Florida Gov. Rick Scott vetoed more than $350 million from the state’s new budget. The governor eliminated $2 million to help create a Space Exploration Research Lab at Florida Tech. Scott noted that there was no way to objectively measure the lab’s return on investment to Florida taxpayers, as well as pointing out that state already funds Space Florida and other aerospace related initiatives. Editor's Note: Also vetoed was a $250,000 appropriation for Florida Space Week, which would have expanded the number of Central Florida elementary school students who visit KSC under the annual program. (5/20)

President Obama: Sally Ride Gets Presidential Medal of Freedom (Source: SpaceRef)
President Barack Obama announced he will award a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut to travel to space. The Medal of Freedom is the Nation's highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. 95/20)

Those Magnificent Spooks and Their Spying Machine (Source: Space Review)
Forty years ago this month, NASA launched its Skylab space station, only to find the station was damaged during its ascent to orbit. Dwayne Day examines the little-known role played by a spy satellite to help NASA assess the damage to Skylab before launching a repair mission. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2299/1 to view the article. (5/20)

Kepler's Uncertain Future (Source: Space Review)
Last week a reaction wheel on NASA's Kepler spacecraft failed, putting the future of the extrasolar planet hunting spacecraft into jeopardy. Jeff Foust reports on efforts to rescue or repurpose Kepler, and why, even with the failure, the spacecraft's exoplanet discoveries will continue. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2298/1 to view the article. (5/20)

Futures Imperfect (Source: Space Review)
Science fiction has long offered a variety of visions of what the future of spaceflight might be like. Dwayne Day looks at three movies slated for release later this year that offer differing visions of humans in space. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2297/1 to view the article. (5/20)

Washington is Stinting NASA, as Usual (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Oh Washington, why do you toy with NASA so? Back in 2009 President Obama convened the Augustine commission to provide a full overview of NASA’s human spaceflight program, and determine the best course of action to take. The committee’s principal finding was, simply, this: NASA’s budget should match its mission and goals. Alas no one in Washington bothered to listen to this advice, then or now.

After the president received the report, he and Congress eventually worked out a plan, in July 2010, that directed NASA to continue developing a space capsule and rocket that would allow the space agency to begin launching humans to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit in the 2020s. I remember quite clearly standing in Rocket Park back in October 2010, when the Texas Congressional delegation took to the podium and patted themselves on the back.

I worried about the stability, the commitment of Washington to NASA and human spaceflight, and whether there was actually enough money in the plan to do what Congress was asking NASA to do. Now let’s jump forward three years. For fiscal year 2012, the 2010 law authorized a budget of $19.45 billion, including $4.05 billion for the development of a new spacecraft and rocket. And what did NASA receive? It’s FY 2012 budget was actually $17.77 billion, and the spacecraft and rocket received $3.00 billion. (5/20)

How Space Tourism Could Help Save Planet Earth (Source: Space.com)
Opening spaceflight up to the masses could help spark a global conservation ethic that stems the tide of environmental destruction on Earth, NASA's science chief says. Seeing our fragile Earth hanging alone in the blackness of space tends to be a life-altering, or at least perspective-changing, experience. If more people around the world are treated to that unforgettable sight, humanity might handle the planet with a bit more care, said John Grunsfeld.

Grunsfeld is a former NASA astronaut who flew on five space shuttle missions. He said the view looking down changed dramatically from his first flight to his last. "The Earth looks totally different now," Grunsfeld said. "We are very visibly and significantly modifying the surface of the Earth, modifying the atmosphere. You can see that easily from space."

Back in the 1960s, Apollo astronauts noted that national borders aren't visible from space. But this inspiring observation, which lent some much-appreciated perspective at the height of the Cold War, is no longer true, Grunsfeld said. "It looks like a Rand McNally map. You can see where there's rich countries and poor countries," he said. "You can see where people have agriculture and irrigation and where people don't. It's very clear." Click here. (5/20)

Pentagon Plans For Up To $500B in Cuts (Source: Defense News)
Pentagon officials will present three different budget proposals to the defense secretary that include cuts of up to $500 billion, according to sources. The officials working on the proposals are involved in the Strategic Choices and Management Review, which wraps up at the end of May, and will present possible $100 billion-cut, $300 billion-cut and $500 billion-cut budgets, including suggestions on where to find the savings. (5/19)

May 20, 2013

New Google-NASA Partnership Marks A New Era In The History Of Computing (Source: Forbes)
It’s easy to become jaded about announcements in the tech world.  Slick, media savvy CEO’s announce “revolutionary” new products with metronomic regularity. Version 1.0 becomes 1.1 and eventually 2.0 and on and on. It all seems like a blur. Meanwhile, the truly groundbreaking stuff often goes unnoticed (neither the transistor nor the microchip were instant hits). Paradigm shifts come in strange guises, with little or no tangible effect on immediate life and often take decades to make an impact.

So, we should take notice at the recent news of the Google-NASA quantum computing partnership which marks the beginning of a new digital paradigm. Although we must account for that which is beyond our present understanding, even the projects currently underway promise a future that seems almost more like science fiction than science fact. Click here. (5/20)

California Company to Take Over KSC Shuttle Facilities (Source: Florida Today)
A California company next month will take over Kennedy Space Center facilities once used to maintain space shuttle thrusters. United Paradyne Corp. of Santa Maria, Calif., has signed a 15-year lease to operate the Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, or HMF, in KSC’s Industrial Area. The company plans to employ 12 people in its first year at KSC with plans to employ up to 50 over the next four years, NASA said.

United Paradyne Corporation is a privately held business specializing in hypergolic storage facility operations and satellite fueling services, NASA said. According to a NASA press release, the company will use the HMF “to provide offline processing support services in the storage, delivery, handling and maintenance of hypergolic and green propellant commodities and satellite fueling operations. The company also will provide services to refurbish, manufacture and assemble test ground support equipment.”

Editor's Note: Hopefully KSC can follow the path blazed by Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Stennis has evolved into a "Federal City" that hosts over two dozen federal, state, academic, and industry tenants who take advantage of the center's capabilities. Stennis' success, however, was partly the result of aggressive support from powerful members of Congress who steered funding and programs to the center. (5/20)

Inspiration Mars Foundation Weighs Rocket Choice For 2018 Flyby (Source: Huffington Post)
The organizers of a private plan to send two people on a round-trip flyby of Mars in 2018 are choosing between a variety of commercial rockets and a NASA booster for the mission. The nonprofit Inspiration Mars foundation was founded by entrepreneur Dennis Tito, who flew to the International Space Station in 2001 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Tito said the flyby mission is aimed at inspiring the public about space exploration and accelerating humanity's quest to visit Mars by taking advantage of a rare launch opportunity that allows for a relatively brief 501-day round trip.

The team hasn't yet chosen a launch vehicle for the mission, but said there are three main options. The first is the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, which is still in development. It should be able to launch about 10 metric tons of mass into low-Earth orbit, which is enough to send the Mars-bound capsule and crew in one go. The vehicle is due for its first test launch next year. A second option is to launch the crew separately from the fuel that will send them out to Mars and back. This scenario would use an Atlas 5 rocket for the fuel and a Delta 4 Heavy booster to carry the crew to Earth orbit.

Finally, there's NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is being developed to send astronauts to an asteroid and Mars in the next decades. "The nice thing about the SLS is this mission closes with a single launch," Carrico said. The rocket should be able to launch more mass than Inspiration Mars requires, potentially offering extra energy that could be used to add more mass to the life support system or other equipment onboard the spacecraft, or to slow down the rather speedy planned Earth re-entry. (5/20)

Hutchison & Cernan: U.S. Must Stay Committed to Racing Towards Space (Source: USA Today)
What our nation fails to do today will be done by others tomorrow... Four years ago, as plans to retire the space shuttle moved forward, uncertainty about America's space program grew. In 2010, the Obama administration's budget plan put development of a next-generation deep space exploration vehicle on hold for five years. Congress addressed the uncertainty with a plan to ensure full utilization of the ISS without delaying production of a deep space vehicle.

We learned a painful lesson when the space shuttle retired without a follow-on capability to take U.S. astronaut researchers to the space station. The result is that we will pay $55 million to $70 million per seat on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In all, the flight will cost $1.5 billion before a U.S. vehicle is operational. Congress' 2010 law will avoid that gap from ever happening again. By ensuring coverage for present priorities and future planning, development of the new heavy launch vehicle has begun. If we maintain the 2010 plan, when the space station is decommissioned in 2020, we will be ready to pursue further exploitation of the moon, possibly Mars and beyond.

Even in a time of tight budgets, policymakers recognized the need for planting seed corn. Fully utilizing the space station while allocating resources for the next deeper space pursuit are not opposing options. For America to realize the benefits of its investment in space exploration, Congress must stay on the balanced course it set in 2010. Or what our nation fails to do today will be done by others tomorrow. (5/20)

Gov. Scott Announces UPC's Expansion at KSC (Source: Gov. Rick Scott)
Today, Governor Rick Scott, along with the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast (EDC), announced that aerospace-related propellant services provider United Paradyne Corp. is expanding to Kennedy Space Center as it seeks to broaden its capabilities with government and commercial launch providers and expand its research and development operations.

Governor Scott said, “This is a great win for Florida’s Space Coast. Last week we learned that in just one month Florida’s unemployment rate dropped from 7.5 to 7.2 percent and that we’ve created more than 330,000 private sector jobs in a little over two years, which is an incredible success. These 50 new aerospace jobs mean that 50 more families will be able to pursue their dreams right here in the Sunshine State.” (5/20)

Ground Control Names Major Tim First U.K. Astronaut in 20 Years (Source: Bloomberg)
The U.K. named a former Apache helicopter pilot to be the first astronaut it will put into space in more than 20 years following an increase in government investment in space research. Tim Peake, who served as a major in the British army, will work for six months on the International Space Station. He’s one of six astronauts selected from among 8,000 hopefuls around the world. The flight is expected to take place in November 2015. (5/20)

Sending UK Astronaut is 'Enormous Logistical Problem' (Source: BBC)
Tim Peake may not be the first British astronaut - but he is the first taxpayer-funded one. He is costing the public £16m - a major leap for the British in space. Colin Pillinger, famous for the "Beagle 2 Mars" mission, told the Today programme: "It's an enormous logistical problem in order to get one astronaut into space." But he added: "Don't underestimate the value of sending an astronaut." (5/20)

A Roadmap for the Future of Astrobiology (Source: Astrobiology)
The NASA Astrobiology Program has started the process of outlining future research directions at the organization. Roughly every ten years, the program updates NASA’s official Astrobiology Roadmap – a document that guides research and technology development across NASA and encompass the space, Earth, and biological sciences. This time around, the program is opening the process up to the wider astrobiology community and calling for the public to participate in decisions that will guide research funding and missions for the coming decades. Click here. (5/20)

Welcome to the Real Space Age (Source: New York Magazine)
New York Magazine has published a ten-page series focused on the fast-changing focus and scope of our nation's space program, government and commercial, but mainly commercial. The series ends with a rundown of the five U.S. companies hoping to get you into space soon. Click here. (5/20)

Outer Space Comes Closer to a U.N. Regime (Source: IDSA)
Over the years various efforts have been made to devise a mutually agreeable space regime without much success. There has been a deadlock in the Conference on Disarmament for more than 15 years on space related matters. Also, the UN efforts like the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPOUS) and the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) have remained non-starters. Presently, two complimentary efforts are underway to develop a space mechanism: one, the International Space Code of Conduct, and the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures (TCBMs) in Outer Space Activities.

The present GGE constitutes a group of members nominated by 15 states. The permanent five (P-5) of the UN Security Council and Brazil, Chile, Italy, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine are the other members of GGE. Apart from P-5 states, which indecently are also space-faring states, only two other members from this grouping have only recently become space-faring states, namely Ukraine and South Korea. In order to have a fair geographic representation, the UN appears to have compromised inducting the actual stakeholders.

Absence of a consensus has resulted in failure to establish any form of space regime. Urgency has arisen to start an initiative, fundamental in nature, with broad-based consensus. In the light of this, a great deal of thinking has gone into developing the TCBMs, which are voluntary in nature. The critical question, however, is whether it is ‘worth to accept the lowest common dominator just because no consensuses are likely to emerge?’ Click here. (5/20)

Texas Public Threat Assessment Points to Problems Near Spaceport (Source: SPACErePORT)
Texas' annual Public Safety Threat Overview for 2013 identifies tropical storms and organized crime tied to Mexican cartels as significant threats in the area planned for a SpaceX launch site. The document describes increasingly brazen and creative tactics used by the cartels and their affiliated gangs on both sides of the border, with billions of dollars in drugs coming into the U.S. through Cameron County and adjacent counties, while $19-39 billion in cash goes south into Mexico each year. Kidnappings are also a growing concern. Here's the report.

To combat the rise in crime and violence, Cameron County (home of the proposed Boca Chica spaceport) recently requested a federal grant. Their application cites "an increase in our kidnapping cases, organized criminal cases (aggravated robberies along the border areas- organized kidnapping ending in homicide), an increase in local street gang recruitment into cartels and more violence... Robberies were occurring numerous times a week due to the geographical location(s) and one of the groups responsible for the robberies was tied into the "Zeta" organization which ended up in seizure of high powered rifles and led to finding of human trafficking." Click here. (5/20)

Electric Propulsion (Source: Launchspace)  
Electric propulsion has been around for several decades. In fact, the idea dates back to 1906, when Robert Goddard made an entry in his personal notebook. Five years later, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published the idea. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw a flurry of research on electric propulsion devices. By 1962, technical papers that addressed the use of these new gadgets for controlling the orbits of geostationary satellites started to appear. The first in-space demonstration of an ion engine was carried on board the SERT-1 (Space Electric Rocket Test) spacecraft, launched in 1964.

Advances have continued through the last several decades, and as a result, we now see many spacecraft applications for electric thrust devices. For example, many of the latest geostationary communications satellites use some form of electric propulsion for station keeping and orbit adjustment functions. Large electric device are being considered for planetary probes and other applications. One might go so far as to claim this technology is mature and ready for many missions. (5/20)

Space Florida Launch at Shiloh: Jobs Trump Rattlesnakes (Source: Headline Surfer)
NASA will postpone any final decision on Shiloh for the results of an environmental impact study for 150 acres out of the approximately 150,000 acres in the area shared by KSC and the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. This is a shift in the position originally taken by NASA, which had earlier opposed the launch site. In my opinion, this shift was driven in part by the growing surge in popular and political support for the project best exemplified by the favorable resolution passed May 2nd by the Volusia County Council.

The Council’s resolution was strongly opposed by a phalanx of environmental activists who repetitively argued that the launches would endanger every creature that lives in the pristine area, impede traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway which passes through Mosquito Lagoon and reduce jobs for fishing guides. When the votes were cast, I believe that it was just this sense of over commitment which undid the environmentalists. Their arguments left me with the impression that they are good people whose depth of commitment to their cause is so great that it overwhelms their better judgment. However, the issue is far from over.

In many ways, the vote of the County Council was just a dog and pony show to demonstrate local support in preparation for the battle over the real decisions. These will be taken at the state and federal levels. And of course by the several private companies which are considering using the Shiloh sites for the launching of their space vehicles. The large majority of Volusians who want this badly-needed flagship development project for our county must leave no stone unturned in our continuing active support. Remember, there was a time when Florida was the center of "all" commercial space development in the world. Now we control none of it. That must be changed and we can begin to make that change happen right here in Volusia County. (5/18)

NASA-Built Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System Ready For Flight (Source: Space Daily)
Nanosatellites now have their own mass transit to catch rides to space and perform experiments in microgravity. A new NASA-designed and developed satellite deployer, dubbed the Nano Launch Adapter System (NLAS), is scheduled to demonstrate the capability to launch a flock of satellites into space later this year.

Capable of carrying up to 24 nanosatellite units, or more than 100 pounds of secondary payloads into orbit, the deployer is complete and ready for flight. NLAS is designed to sit beneath a primary spacecraft and connect it to the upper stage of a rocket. Standing a mere ten inches tall, NLAS is short enough to squeeze various configurations of cubesats, such as 3-unit satellites that measure approximately 14 inches long, 4 inches wide and 4 inches high, or 6-unit satellites that measure approximately 14 inches long, 9 inches wide and 4 inches high. (5/20)

Mice, Gerbils Perish in Russia Space Flight (Source: Space Daily)
A number of mice and eight gerbils sent into space in a Russian capsule destined to find out how well organisms can withstand extended flights perished during their journey, scientists said Sunday as the month-long mission touched back down on Earth. Most of the 45 mice sent into orbit -- along with the gerbils and 15 newts -- died on the mission, which nevertheless returned with data that scientists hope will pave the way for a manned flight to Mars.

The animals on board the Bion-M craft died because of equipment failure or due to the stresses of space, scientists said. The craft itself landed softly early on Sunday with the help of a special parachute system in the Orenburg region about 1,200 kilometers southeast of Moscow. It was also carrying snails, some plants and microflora. "This is the first time that animals have been put in space on their own for so long," Vladimir Sychov of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced upon the peculiar crew's return to Earth. (5/19)

Method Proposed for Detecting Gravitational Waves From Ends of Universe (Source: Space Daily)
A new window into the nature of the universe may be possible with a device proposed by scientists at the University of Nevada, Reno and Stanford University that would detect elusive gravity waves from the other end of the cosmos. Their paper describing the device and process was published in the prestigious physics journal Physical Review Letters.

"Gravitational waves represent one of the missing pieces of Einstein's theory of general relativity," Andrew Geraci said. "While there is a global effort already out there to find gravitational waves, our proposed method is an alternate approach with greater sensitivity in a significantly smaller device. Our detector is complementary to existing gravitational wave detectors, in that it is more sensitive to sources in a higher frequency band, so we could see signals that other detectors might potentially miss." (5/20)

Pakistan Adopts Chinese Rival GPS Satellite System (Source: Space Daily)
Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China's domestic satellite navigation system which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system. The Beidou, or Compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications. Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites, with 30 more due to join the system. (5/18)

NASA Seeks High-Performance Spaceflight Computing Capabilities (Source: Space Daily)
NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque are requesting research and development proposals to define the type of spacecraft computing needed for future missions. Through a broad agency announcement, the Air Force Next Generation Space Processor Analysis Program is seeking two to four companies to perform a yearlong evaluation of advanced, space-based applications that would use spaceflight processors for the 2020-2030 time frame.

NASA's decision to partner with the Air Force and issue a joint solicitation was influenced by a four-month formulation study funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate's Game Changing Development Program. During that investigation, engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., evaluated 19 real-life mission scenarios involving the use of flight processors. (5/20)

Space Warps Project Needs Your Help (Source: Space Daily)
Astronomers are asking volunteers to help them search for "space warps." More commonly known as "gravitational lenses," these are rare systems with very massive galaxies or clusters of galaxies that bend light around them so that they act rather like giant lenses in space, creating beautiful mirages. Anyone can participate in Space Warps project, which was launched on 8 May 2013. Click here. (5/10)

May 19, 2013

Spaceport Georgia (Source: Ledger-Enquirer)
Georgia is ideally situated, in terms of both geography and infrastructure, to locate a commercial spaceport. Our southern latitude is important because spacecraft get an additional boost from Earth's rotation the farther south they launch. Also, launching spacecraft over the ocean, rather than heavily populated land areas, reduces the risk. Where can you find a southeastern coastline? Georgia. These geographical assets are further enhanced with barge access to the Atlantic, a superior interstate system, and the world's busiest airport nearby.

Combine these benefits with a population of 85,000 aerospace workers in the state and an outstanding university system to train and enhance the next generation workforce, and Georgia presents a highly attractive package for space entrepreneurs. Few people today realize that in 1960, when NASA was looking for a site to launch rockets, Georgia was on the short list for many of these reasons. New work to obtain spaceport property and do the things necessary for it to become a reality has already begun.

If successful, one need only look at the area surrounding Kennedy Space Center to see what it could mean for Georgia. Imagine the high-tech companies that have located near the center and the jobs that have been created, both in the space industry and those necessary to support that increasing population. Add to that the tourists who visit the Space Coast every day and the additional tourists who come to the area for each launch. Elon Musk said that whoever gets this complex will be getting the Cape Canaveral of commercial space. The economic potential is simply astounding. Click here. (5/18)

Hale Tells Senators Public-Private Union is the Way (Source: Florida Today)
Wayne Hale went before the U.S. Senate last week and pointedly summed up the state of America’s space program. After working decades in the government-run space shuttle and space station projects, he told senators that NASA’s seeding of commercial programs are the start of a solution to the biggest obstacle to space exploration. “The most singularly vexing problem with spaceflight is the high cost of getting to low-Earth orbit,” Hale told the committee, noting that the problem dogged the industry since its start.

Getting over that, Hale said, is done the same way that other major technological problems were solved: public-private partnership. “So we are in a ‘chicken or the egg’ paradox,” Hale testified. “Space business needs low-cost transportation to become profitable, while potential private transportation services need established business to justify the cost of construction. This is not the first time that America has been in this situation. Both the early railroads and fledgling air transportation industries found themselves becalmed in similar straits. In both these cases, and others, the federal taxpayers stepped in to provide critical resources to help new industries develop.

With commercial systems under development for NASA, Hale warned: “Poised on the cusp of these new systems, we run the risk of being penny-wise and pound-foolish as we make the same mistake that doomed the space shuttle to much higher cost operations: starving a spacecraft development program in the name of saving a few pennies for today’s budget bottom line, resulting in the compromised systems that, if they fly at all, will not be cheap enough to enable business in space.” (5/18)

The Torah of Space Exploration (Source: Huffington Post)
We humans are naturally curious creatures -- we are born to explore. A mission to Mars excites us because we simply don't know what we'll discover, or how exactly it will add to our knowledge, or what new technologies will arise as a result. Even if we don't immediately sense its benefits, it still has value, because the journey of learning is its own reward. That's the same message we get on Shavuot, our celebration of Torah, because the study of Torah, too, doesn't always provide an immediate return on its investment. Instead, we study Torah lishmah, for its own sake.

Why? Because Torah is not designed to train us how to build a boat. It is designed to make us long for the open seas. Jewish learning is never supposed to give us a final and definitive answer. Instead, it is supposed to inspire us, and to push us to explore beyond what we already know. (5/17)

What Governments Can Learn From Chris Hadfield (Source: Time)
The manned space program was once like Green Bay Packers tickets — the thing just sold itself. You’ve got the spacemen, we’ve got the eyeballs. Workplaces came to a stop and TVs were rolled into classrooms not just for an Al Shepard or a John Glenn, but for Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon going up aboard Gemini 11. Know about that one? Of course you don’t. But everyone did back then. Things are a little different now. Quick: How many people are currently aboard the International Space Station? Anybody?

The thrill would inevitably fade a bit after the Apollo 11 landing, but nobody expected it to fade to black—which it effectively has. Part of the problem has been the sales pitch. The Apollo program was followed by Skylab—the first American space station—and NASA chose the dreariest possible metaphor to describe it: no longer were we embarking on voyages of discovery like Magellan’s or Columbus’s, this time we were going to establish a little  colony—like Jamestown! There’s heroism in such work, sure. But excitement? Not exactly.

NASA hasn’t even tried to get much public relations mileage out of the current space station, though it’s a breathtaking if not terribly useful machine. Over the past nine years, the rest of the manned space program has drifted from a return to the moon and a trip to Mars, to a return to the moon alone, to a visit to an asteroid or a gravity-neutral Lagrange point, to the latest head-scratcher: capturing an asteroid and towing it to the vicinity of the moon so we can visit it. What Hadfield did—what any smart advertiser does—was sweep away any ancillary clutter and get straight to the point he wanted to make. Click here. (5/19)

L.A. Hobbyists Seek $1.5 Million Prize in NASA Mars Robot Challenge (Source: Pasadena Star-News)
When NASA takes the next big step in Mars exploration - retrieving a rock sample and bringing it safely back to Earth - it might have to thank a few dedicated hobbyists who are doing the hardscrabble work to develop a robot that can drive itself. Fourteen teams, some of them just lone builders working in their spare time, are competing in the NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge, now in its second year, with a $1.5 million prize at stake.

Each team is working on an autonomous robot that can recognize objects in a grassy field and go pick them up, without relying on human control or Earth-based technology such as GPS. No one really expects the teams to succeed, at least not yet. "We did set the bar very high," said Sam Ortega, who oversees the competition from Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

The robot builders will gather June 5 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, and are unlikely to get past the first of two stages. That's if the robots meet some strict guidelines, such as an 80-kilogram maximum weight. Last year, only one team even managed to reach the first stage. NASA is seeking cutting-edge technology from blue-collar citizens and companies, rather than its own engineers, in hopes of finding the revolutionary approaches that come from limited resources. (5/18)

Space Florida and Kennedy Space Center Host 'Egg Drop' (Source: America Space)
While it has been said, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” and “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” 233 Florida students opted to not take that advice as they had their eyes on the prize—a single unbroken egg—Saturday, May 18, as they competed in the fourth annual Planetary Lander Egg Drop Competition at Strawberry Crest High School located in Dover, Florida.

The competition was hosted by Space Florida and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to inspire students from all grade levels to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and to foster critical thinking through designing and building their own “landers,” designed to cushion and protect an egg. The event boasted designs from students in elementary, middle, and high school teams across several Florida counties.

Ten elementary school teams, 19 middle school teams, and 15 high school teams took part in the competition, in which their designs were judged for creativity, durability, originality, planning, and, of course, whether their egg “payload,” dropped from a height of 20 feet, landed intact without cracking or breaking. Click here. (5/18)

Why Sign Up for a One-Way Mars Trip? Three Applicants Explain the Appeal (Source: NBC)
A one-way trip to Mars sounds like something you'd wish on your worst enemy — so why would more than 78,000 people from around the world pay up to $75 for a chance to die on another planet? "I can say I have an ulterior motive," said David Brin, who has written more than a dozen science-fiction novels — including "The Postman," which was turned into a Kevin Costner movie in 1997. "I'd get a lot of writing done, and it might be memorable."

As a master of hard science fiction, the 62-year-old Brin knows better than most applicants what the first Red Planet settlers would face if they're sent off in 2022, as the Dutch-based Mars One venture has proposed. "This may sound crazy, but it kind of reminds me of 'The Hunger Games,'" said Kayli McArthur, an 18-year-old student who's one of the youngest Mars One applicants. "It's cool that it would be televised, but that's not my whole thing."

On the other end of the age spectrum, 71-year-old psychiatrist Sanford Pomerantz is a little surprised that it's taking this long to get something like Mars One off the ground. "I thought by now we would have colonized Mars," said Pomerantz, who's currently the oldest applicant on Mars One's list. Click here. (5/18)

KSC's MLPs Would Support Liquid and Solid Fuel Rockets, Including Liberty (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
KSC’s Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) program has noted how they expect to transition their three Mobile Launch Platforms (MLPs), with MLP-1 set to retire, MLP-2 to be dedicated to a liquid fueled vehicle – such as Atlas V, and MLP-3 to be used by a Solid Rocket Motor vehicle – such as ATK's Liberty rocket. ATK is understood to be close to announcing details of a realigned version of that rocket, currently known as Liberty II.

Editor's Note: With Liberty's first stage serving as NASA's initial SLS strap-on boosters, ATK is able to to keep it's development alive despite Liberty having lost NASA's early Commercial Crew solicitations. One key to Liberty's long-term business case may be the rocket's eligibility for launching military payloads under the Air Force's EELV program. (5/18)

From Atlas V to Falcon X – Commercial Suitors Wanted for Pad 39A (Source: NasaSpaceWatch.com)
A level of interest has already been mooted by several parties, ranging from ULA's Atlas V through to SpaceX’s future monster Falcon X concepts. Sources claim that Space Florida will likely obtain the use of the Shiloh site located at the very North end of KSC, providing environmental reports come back favorable. In that event, Space Florida may be willing to provide funds to SpaceX to build a Falcon Heavy complex at the Shiloh site.

More intriguing is the interest in potentially hosting a Super Heavy version of the Falcon, a notional family of rockets called Falcon X, Falcon X Heavy and Falcon XX – vehicles that would utilize the preliminary future engine that was initially referred to as the Merlin 2, but has since moved towards an engine called Raptor.

These vehicles were mentioned as having expressed interest in Complex 39A in the long-term future, citing potential scenarios where Space Florida held full control over the complex within the next 10 years, which – it was noted – would be below the time frame SpaceX is envisioned to be looking at actually building their own Super Heavy Lift Vehicle. The ULA have also expressed interest – again, providing the economics are acceptable – in potential options at Complex 39. (5/18)

May 18, 2013

Russia, France Planning 7 Kourou Launches by 2015 (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia and France will carry out seven Soyuz-ST carrier rocket launches from the Kourou space center in French Guiana by the end of 2014, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said. Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin and President of France’s Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) Jean-Yves Le Gall reaffirmed the launch schedule under the 2008 contract between Roscosmos and French space company Arianespace during a meeting in Moscow on Friday. (5/18)

Why ‘Star Trek’ Matters (Source: Smithsonian)
Smithsonian scholar and curator Margaret Weitekamp argues that the Star Trek fictional series of space exploration helped define and inspire real world parallels. From advancing diversity in NASA to anticipating new technologies, “Star Trek” left its mark on American culture. Weitekamp, the Air and Space Museum’s curator of space science fiction materials, including a 14-foot model of the Enterprise, says, it will continue to do so. Click here. (5/15)

Russia Prepares for Reentry/Recovery of Bion Research Capsule (Source: Russian Space Web)
On May 14, 2013, the search team of Russia's Central Military District, which just completed the successful recovery of the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft, was ordered to move to the Orenburg Region in southern Russia to support the landing of Bion M No. 1 on the morning of May 19. A total of seven Mi-8 helicopters, along with An-12 and An-26 fixed wing aircraft and 150 members of military personnel were expected to participate in the operation.

A special homing radio signal on the reentry module of the spacecraft was designed to help search and rescue team to locate the capsule. The life-support system onboard Bion-M was designed to function for at least 24 hours to ensure a well-being of all biological objects and experiments onboard. (5/17)

Will Smith and Son Jaden Visit Spaceport America (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Will Smith and his son, Jaden, star together in the film "After Earth" which is scheduled to open on May 31. On Friday, though, the father-and-son duo were in southern New Mexico at Spaceport America to help promote the film as well as promote a pact between Virgin Produced - the film and television arm of Virgin Group - with Overbrook Entertainment.

Virgin Galactic is a tenant at Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport, about 40 miles north of Las Cruces. Overbrook Entertainment will support the "After Earth" franchise, according to a release. The movie's plot involves a crash landing that leaves the two main characters stranded on earth 1,000 years after humanity left the planet. (5/17)

Newly Illustrated Versions of the NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement (Source: NSS)
A newly illustrated version of the NSS Roadmap to Space Settlement is now available in three new formats: (1) A free downloadable PDF edition, (2) a free online full-screen flip-book edition, and (3) a quality full-color magazine-style printed edition for $9.95. Some new and striking art work appears for the first time in these new editions of the NSS Roadmap. Let these artists show you some of the possible paths to space development and settlement. These new editions provide you with additional ways to read and distribute this material to help promote the NSS Vision.

The Roadmap has two major goals: First, to inspire and having the entire sweep of future space history in an easily readable form in one's hands is inspiring. Second, by delineating and discussing specific Milestones, to make it easier for you to formulate and advocate policies that are most likely to advance the day when the NSS Vision becomes a reality. Click here. (5/18)

Kiera Wilmot: NASA Engineer Awards Fla. Teen Scholarship To Space Academy (Source: News One)
Florida teen Kiera Wilmot, 16, deserved some good news after being the target of a racist legal system, arrested and expelled for causing a small explosion during a science experiment. And she received it in the form of an unexpected scholarship to attend the United States Advanced Space Academy (ASA) from former NASA engineer Homer Hickam, reports the Black Youth Project.

As previously reported by NewsOne, on the morning of Monday, April 20,  Kiera mixed some household chemicals inside of an 8 oz. bottle of water. The top flew off the bottle and a cloud of smoke erupted. There was no damage caused and no one was injured, but Kiera was led away in handcuffs and faced possible charges of “possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device.” Kiera was expelled, served a 10-day suspension  and will have to complete her diploma in an expulsion program. (5/18)

China to Invest Big to Support Beidou System (Source: Xinhua)
China is expected to invest 7 billion yuan ($1.13 billion) to support the development of industries related to the country's Beidou satellite navigation system before 2015, an industry insider said. "Industries related to the Beidou system are entering a booming development stage," Yang Qiangwen, a senior engineer at the China Satellite Navigation Office, said at the Fourth China Satellite Navigation Conference on Thursday in Wuhan.

According to the office's figures, the central government has already invested around 3.5 billion yuan to boost industries related to the Beidou system. And as the support from the central government continues, Yang said that the Beidou system will bring new economic growth to the country. Industry experts estimated that the Beidou system may unleash a potential market worth 225 billion yuan, which may be the reason for the country's surging investments in the project. (5/18)

So, is Astronaut Chris Hadfield Interested in Politics? (Source: Vancouver Sun)
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says he's interested in politics but has no immediate plans to make it his next career. He was asked whether he might use his newfound fame as a springboard into the political arena. "I'm as interested in politics as any Canadian, of course. That determines the fate of our country," Hadfield said Friday in an interview from Houston.

"But for me personally, right now, I have no aspirations at all." The three-time space visitor said Friday that there are so many short-term projects on his plate that he hasn't committed to any long-term plans yet. Let alone political life. (5/18)

US Spaceflight Ambitions Must Face Budget Reality, NASA Chief Says (Source: Space.com)
Charles Bolden, NASA's chief and a self-described dreamer, says there is a line between dreams and reality when it comes to what the space agency can do, especially in light of current budget constraints. "I am the eternal optimist, but I am also a realist," the NASA administrator said at Johnson Space Center. "Every single thing that we have on our plate right now, an asteroid mission, Mars, those are all very realistic. We know conceptually how to do that. We don't have all the technological capability to do it yet."

"[We have] three destinations: low Earth orbit — the International Space Station right now — we're handing that off to commercial entities; an asteroid by 2025; and Mars is the ultimate destination for humanity," said Bolden. "And nobody can go there if we don't go. If NASA does not lead, humanity is not going there and we're going to go there by the 2030s."

"If the President and the Congress are not able to solve the sequester issue, which is a 10 year problem, we're in trouble," Bolden said. "If we have to operate under sequester, in 2014, NASA's budget goes from the present $16.8 billion — it will not go up to $17.7 [billion] — it will go down another $800 million to about $16.1 [billion]. That's significantly below the level of spending that we have right now." (5/17)

Private Space Plane Arrives in California for Key Flight Tests (Source: Space.com)
A private space plane has arrived at a NASA facility in California to undergo tests that will help vet its ability to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. A test version of the Dream Chaser space plane arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California on Wednesday (May 15) aboard a flatbed truck, wrapped in a protective white caul for the overland journey from Colorado.

Engineers will put the Dream Chaser through its paces at Dryden, testing out its flight and runway landing systems, NASA officials said. The vehicle will be towed down a runway by a truck, for example, to validate the Dream Chaser's brakes and tires. A heavy-lift helicopter will also carry the vehicle aloft, allowing engineers to examine the loads the space plane will experience during flight. Such "captive-carry" tests will lead up to a free-flight trial planned for later this year. (5/17)

How Electric Spacecraft Could Fly NASA to Mars (Source: Space.com)
Electric vehicles aren't just popular on the ground — it turns out they're all the rage in space these days, too. While still not as common as traditional chemical spacecraft engines, electric engines are growing in popularity for both Earth-orbiting satellites and scientific spacecraft on missions to deep space. And electric engines could turn out to be a key element in NASA's goal of sending people to Mars, experts say.

"The maturity of the various technologies that make up electric propulsion is getting there," said Vlad Hruby, president of the Busek spacecraft engine company. Hruby said he's been waiting for a renaissance in electric spacecraft for about 20 years. "Now it's finally coming to fruition." In 2012, Boeing introduced an all-electric communications satellite design called the 702SP, which officials say has been popular with commercial clients. In April of this year, satellite builder Orbital Sciences said it's developing its own all-electric model to compete.

There are two main ways to power an electric spacecraft engine: via solar energy absorbed from the sun, or via nuclear fission. Both have been tested successfully, though solar electric propulsion is the most commonly used. "The solar array power is getting cheaper per watt, getting more efficient," Hruby said. "A bunch of factors are converging to finally make it the preferred method." (5/17)

Fallout from Huge Solar Flare Sideswipes Earth (Source: Space.com)
A huge explosion on the sun dealt Earth a glancing blow on May 17 but did not pose a threat to the planet, scientists say. The sun storm erupted late Tuesday (May 14) during a powerful solar flare — the fourth unleashed by a single sunspot in just 48 hours — and hurled a massive cloud of charged particles out into space at millions of miles an hour. (5/17)

Huge Rock Crashes Into Moon, Sparks Giant Explosion (Source: Space.com)
The moon has a new hole on its surface thanks to a boulder that slammed into it in March, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen on the moon since they started monitoring it. The meteorite crashed on March 17, slamming into the lunar surface at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph) and creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 meters). The crash sparked a bright flash of light that would have been visible to anyone looking at the moon at the time with the naked eye, NASA scientists say. (5/17)

Russia to Move Angara Rocket to Plesetsk Center by June (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia’s new super-heavy class Angara carrier rocket will be delivered to the Plesetsk space center for further testing by June, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. "The work on the rocket at the Khrunichev space company is almost completed,” Rogozin said.

Rogozin did not say when the rocket, capable of delivering up to 75 tons of payload into orbit, will make its maiden flight, but expressed confidence that the Angara development and testing schedule, approved by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, will be observed. Angara rockets, designed to provide lifting capabilities of between 2,000 and 75,000 kilograms into low earth orbit, have been in development since 1995. (5/17)

GPS Data Could Improve Tsunami Early Warnings (Source: BBC)
Scientists say they have found a way to provide faster and more accurate early warning systems for tsunamis. A German team says GPS satellite-based positioning could offer detailed information about the events within minutes of an earthquake occurring. They believe the technology could have improved alerts issued when the devastating tsunami hit Japan in 2011. (5/17)

May 17, 2013

KSC Seeks Commercial Operator for Former Shuttle/Saturn V Launch Pad (Source: SpaceRef)
NASA KSC is seeking a qualified lessee who is capable of taking responsibility for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of Launch Complex 39, Pad A (LC-39A) as a commercial launch facility. LC-39A is a potentially useful, historically significant, launch platform for a commercial company or consortium, or other U.S. domestic entity, including state agencies, to use to support commercial launch activities while assuming financial and technical responsibility for O&M. Such commercial use will protect LC-39A from deterioration resulting from non-use. Click here.

Editor's Note: OK, who might step up to this challenge? ATK, SpaceX, Blue Origin, ULA? Space Florida? SpaceX will convert LC-40 for Falcon-Heavy and Falcon-9 human missions, and--like Blue Origin--might prefer to wait and see what happens with Shiloh for its other needs. ULA is committed to its existing launch pads for Atlas and Delta. ATK has been largely silent on its plans for Liberty and Athena-3. Space Florida might appropriately play its "spaceport authority" role in taking over the facility, but can they afford to do it without a committed user? This will be interesting to watch. (5/17)

Commercial Space Advocates Want Bigger Role in Exploration as NASA Budget Shrinks (Source: Space News)
Commercial space advocates here said the private sector should have a larger role in U.S. space exploration plans, even as a legislative aide warned that NASA — still the critical anchor customer for such companies — is in line for yet another difficult budget year. “As we look toward the future, commercial space does not stop at low Earth orbit,” Mike Gold, director of Washington operations for Bigelow Aerospace and chairman of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), said at that group’s annual spring meeting May 15.

Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., has a pair of Space Act Agreements with NASA, including a nearly $20 million pact awarded in December to fly one of the company’s inflatable space modules aboard the international space station in 2015. “I find it a bit of a false debate that occurs in this town the whole notion that somehow it’s commercial space versus NASA leading our exploration effort,” Steve Isakowitz, vice president and chief technology officer for New Mexico-based Virgin Galactic, said at the COMSTAC meeting.

NASA’s stance, which Administrator Charles Bolden repeated at the COMSTAC meeting, is that using privately owned spacecraft such as those being developed by Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Sierra Nevada under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, can free up agency resources for exploration beyond Earth. “NASA does not belong ... in access to low Earth orbit,” Bolden said. “There are still things to be learned there, but those things can be learned by industry as well as they can by NASA.” (5/17)

How Orbital's Falling Satellite Sparked a UFO Mystery in South America (Source: NBC)
When Orbital Sciences' test spacecraft fell from orbit last week, the company saw the fiery blaze as a cause for celebration — but it was also the cause of a UFO mystery, at least for a little while. The spacecraft was a dummy payload, which was launched into orbit on April 21 aboard Orbital's newly developed Antares booster during its maiden flight. The satellite's primary purpose was to simulate the mass of the company's Cygnus cargo capsule.

Orbital never intended the Cygnus Mass Simulator to stay in space. Its orbit gradually decayed over the course of more than two weeks, and on the night of May 9-10 it finally made its descent through the atmosphere. As it fell, aerodynamic forces heated it up, and tore it apart. It broke into several dozen flaming fireballs, streaking together from horizon to horizon across the evening skies of Chile and Argentina. (5/17)

Tech Company CEOs Arrested in Glonass Embezzlement Case (Source: RIA Novosti)
The previous and current general directors of high-tech company Synertech have been arrested on suspicion of embezzling funds from the federal program for the Glonass satellite navigation system. The current chief executive officer was taken into custody, and the former CEO was placed under house arrest after Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court granted the investigators' warrant request on May 16, the same day that Moscow police reported another major embezzlement from Glonass, saying that Synertech management has stolen at least 85 million rubles ($2.7 million) “supposedly as payment” for conducting a research project. (5/17)

NASA: New Pump Resolves Big Space Station Leak (Source: AP)
An impromptu spacewalk over the weekend seems to have fixed a big ammonia leak at the International Space Station, NASA said Thursday. The "gusher" erupted a week ago, prompting the hastiest repair job ever by residents of the orbiting lab. Spacewalking astronauts replaced a suspect ammonia pump on Saturday, just two days after the trouble arose.

NASA is now calling the old, removed pump "Mr. Leaky," said flight controller Anthony Vareha. "Right now, we're feeling pretty good. We definitely got the big leak," Vareha said in a NASA broadcast from Mission Control in Houston. Vareha said engineers don't know whether the pump replacement also took care of a smaller leak that has plagued the system for years. It will take at least a couple months of monitoring to know the full status. (5/17)

Georgia NDIA Chapter to Discuss Spaceport (Source: NewSpace Watch)
Space industry, education, and business development speakers will discuss Georgia’s current status, and why Georgia has been described by International commercial Space companies as “the best location on the US east coast for Launch” and the proposed Camden County Spaceport site as “a goldmine for GA.” Georgia’s geographic location. The former Thiokol rocket test area is ideal for launches to the east over water and is convenient for shipping to other Spaceports in FL or VA. Click here. (5/17)

Buzz Aldrin's Cryptic Advice to 'Finish School' Raises Questions (Source: Huffington Post)
The other day, I took my nine-year-old son to see a true American hero: Buzz Aldrin, the second human to set foot on the Moon. Mr. Aldrin was signing his new book, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration, at the local Barnes and Noble. After we waited patiently in line for a couple hours with a jovial crowd of space enthusiasts, Buzz signed his book for us and we asked if he had any advice for my son if he wanted to be an astronaut. Buzz looked slightly puzzled at first, then stared deep into my boy's eyes: "Finish school."

That's it. "Finish school." And then he was signing the next book, and continued signing for probably two more hours judging by the size of the crowd. Excellent advice for the youth of today. My son -- who in my mind has barely started school -- took it to heart that he should spend years in school, study hard and finish with a PhD like Buzz. But like Benjamin Braddock contemplating the true meaning of "plastics," we swirled Buzz's simple declarative in our minds searching for some greater cosmic meaning. Click here. (5/16)

SpaceX Tests 5.2 Meter Fairing Separation (Source: SpaceRef)
SpaceX released this separation test video of their in-house designed 5.2m fairing which is undergoing testing at NASA Glenn Research Center Plum Brook Station. Click here. (5/17)

DARPA Cancels Formation-flying Satellite Demo (Source: Space News)
DARPA has canceled a planned formation-flying satellite demonstration in which it has invested more than $200 million, but a senior agency official said DARPA remains committed to space. Brad Tousley, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, confirmed the decision to terminate the Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated Free-flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange, or System F6, experiment, which had a notional 2015 launch date.

Tousley cited a number of factors including the lack of an overall integrator to pull the mission together, and said the project’s cancellation is in no way a signal that DARPA, the Pentagon’s advanced technology development arm, is shying away from space projects. Other DARPA space projects, including one aimed at developing a low-cost satellite launcher and another to demonstrate satellite salvaging, are proceeding apace, Tousley said. (5/17)

Danish Space Venture Ready for Lift Off (Source: Space Daily)
Aquaporin A/S and Danish Aerospace Company ApS have created a new promising Joint Venture company in the space sector under the name Aquaporin Space Alliance (ASA). The new company will commercialize the "Aquaporin Inside" technology in space applications and space programs together with European and US-based entities.

Aquaporin Inside membranes offer a broad field of applications within the European and US space programs primarily in Manned Space programs such as those of ESA and NASA and within the new growing private sector space. The membranes use aquaporin molecules for transport of water across a membrane. Aquaporins are Nature's own water filter and facilitate rapid, highly selective water transport in nature. The physiological importance of the aquaporin in human is perhaps most conspicuous in the kidney, where approximately 150-200 liters of water are reabsorbed from the primary urine each day.

Examples of potential space business areas for Aquaporin Inside membranes are: Drinking water in space suits, in space capsules and on space stations, clean technical water for specific use e.g. cooling of space suits and spacecraft systems, water for humidity control, batteries and other applications, and water purification of local sources on foreign celestial bodies for future exploration. (5/15)

Human Mars Lander Must Break New Ground (Source: Aviation Week)
For all the attention focused on how hard it will be to keep astronauts alive while they fly from Earth to Mars, the challenge of setting them safely down on the Martian surface will be just as difficult. To land a house-sized cargo carrier or human habitat on Mars, Steltzner says, it probably will be necessary to go directly from hypersonic speeds to propulsive deceleration—essentially firing some kind of rocket to slow down enough to land. And that, the experts say, will be as difficult to accomplish as developing efficient radiation protection, the traditional long pole in the tent for a human trip to Mars.

Kendall Brown, an EDL expert in the Exploration and Mission Systems Office at Marshall Space Flight Center, said a cross-agency study using then-current design reference missions (DRMs) took parachutes entirely out of the landing sequence for a human expedition. Instead, either a rigid or inflatable aerodynamic decelerator would slow the entry vehicles from hypersonic speeds to supersonic speed in the Mach 2.5-3 range. At that point, the EDL system would shift to rocket propulsion for the remainder of the landing.

“The rocket engine nozzles are going into a flow field that's supersonic, so you're going to set up shock fields, pressures behind the shock that the engine has to start against,” says Brown. “Those don't look like they're going to be insurmountable, but it's going to be a highly dynamic event.” For human-sized landers, says Brown, “the most efficient trajectory is one that waits until almost the last minute, fires a very high thrust, and then you touch down. But you . . . have very little ability to throttle the engines to provide precision landing. And we want to start working the precision landing problem as soon as we enter the atmosphere.” (5/17)

Mars Icebreaker Life Mission (Source: Space Daily)
Missions to Mars have only scratched its surface. To go deeper, scientists are proposing a spacecraft that can drill into the Red Planet to potentially find signs of life. The driving goal for exploring Mars is finding signs of life, said planetary scientist Christopher McKay at NASA's Ames Research Center. There are mountains of evidence that Mars was once home to liquid water on its surface, and virtually wherever there is water on Earth, there is life.

The spacecraft would drill up to about 3 feet (1 meter) down and scan ice shavings for organic biomarkers - molecules that would be conclusive evidence of life, ones too complex to be produced non-biologically. An ideal region for the Icebreaker Life mission to drill would actually be the area where Phoenix landed in 2008. The ice-cemented ground in the northern plains of Mars are the most recently habitable places currently known on Mars - the atmospheric pressure there is high enough to keep water from automatically boiling away. (5/17)

New Method of Finding Planets Scores its First Discovery (Source: Space Daily)
Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling stars) and transits (looking for dimming stars). A team at Tel Aviv University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has just discovered an exoplanet using a new method that relies on Einstein's special theory of relativity.

Although Kepler was designed to find transiting planets, this planet was not identified using the transit method. The new method looks for three small effects that occur simultaneously as a planet orbits the star. Einstein's "beaming" effect causes the star to brighten as it moves toward us, tugged by the planet, and dim as it moves away. The brightening results from photons "piling up" in energy, as well as light getting focused in the direction of the star's motion due to relativistic effects. (5/16)

NASA's Asteroid Sample Return Mission Moves into Development (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's first mission to sample an asteroid is moving ahead into development and testing in preparation for its launch in 2016. The Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) passed a confirmation review Wednesday called Key Decision Point (KDP)-C. NASA officials reviewed a series of detailed project assessments and authorized the spacecraft's continuation into the development phase.

OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of it to Earth in 2023. "Successfully passing KDP-C is a major milestone for the project," said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "This means NASA believes we have an executable plan to return a sample from Bennu. It now falls on the project and its development team members to execute that plan." (5/17)

What if Neil Armstrong had an iPhone… (Source: Typhone)
In our spare time people really like to philosophize. Just like NASA recently did when they wondered if smartphones could be send to space to take pictures. People also often wonder how it would be if women or the internet didn’t exist. We on the other hand wondered how it would be if Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, had a smartphone during his legendary Apollo 11 mission. Nowadays a smartphone is way more technically advanced than the Saturn V rocket and the Lunar module combined. That same impressive trip to the moon now would probably look a whole lot different. Click here. (5/13)

Lockheed Martin to Build Two More GOES Weather Satellites (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
NOAA has ordered two more GOES geostationary weather satellites from Lockheed Martin Corp. for launch in 2019 and 2024, officials said Wednesday. The GOES-T and GOES-U satellites will be nearly identical to the GOES-R and GOES-S satellites now under construction by Lockheed Martin.

The satellites will continue GOES weather observations through 2036, taking real-time images and piping data to weather forecasters, news organizations and the public. Meteorologists use the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system in tracking severe storms, hurricanes and other weather systems to help develop short-term forecasts. (5/16)

Boeing Selected to Build ViaSat-2 Satellite (Source: Boeing)
Boeing has a new satellite customer under a contract to design and deliver one Boeing 702HP high-power spacecraft to ViaSat Inc. in 2016. The satellite, ViaSat-2, will provide high-speed satellite broadband services to subscribers of the ViaSat Exede Internet service, as well as address its growing mobile broadband businesses. The companies also will cooperatively offer the system to other satellite providers. Contract value is not being disclosed. (5/16)

ViaSat-2's "First of its Kind" Design Will Enable Broad Geographic Reach (Source: Space News)
The $625 million ViaSat-2 Ka-band satellite system will employ a design that has never been seen before. It will not just be a more-powerful version of the 140-gigabit-per-second ViaSat-1, which is ViaSat’s principal source of consumer satellite broadband revenue.

In addition to a much broader coverage area including the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe, and a capacity that ViaSat said will be equivalent to 2.5 times ViaSat-1, the new satellite apparently does away with the classic Ka-band spot-beam design. “Ours is an everywhere satellite that offers an orders-of-magnitude improvement” over existing designs. “It’s the first of its kind in terms of capacity and geographic coverage. It’s just never been done before.” (5/17)

ViaSat's Record $1.1 Billion in Revenues and $1.4 Billion in Awards for FY-2013 (Source: ViaSat)
ViaSat Inc., an innovator in satellite and other wireless networking systems and services, announced financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013. The fiscal fourth quarter results include new contract awards of $227.1 million, and a 28% growth in revenues to $308.7 million compared to the same period last year. (5/16)

Private Spaceship Tests Underway in Virginia, California (Source: Bloomberg)
A Colorado company developing a spaceship to take astronauts to the International Space Station is having elements of its spacecraft undergo landing-related tests at NASA facilities in Virginia and California. NASA wants private firms to ferry astronauts into low-Earth orbit so it can focus on deep-space exploration and send crews to a nearby asteroid and eventually Mars.

Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser vehicle is being tested at a Dryden runway to validate the performance of the craft's nose strut, brakes and tires. A free-flight test later this year will measure Dream Chaser's aerodynamics through landing. Meanwhile, astronauts are using a flight simulator at Langley to simulate what it would be like to land the Dream Chaser at Edwards Air Force Base. in a variety of atmospheric conditions. The tests are scheduled to last through Friday and will also include evaluations of the spacecraft's guidance and navigation performance. The simulation involves the final 10,000 feet and 60 seconds of a future Dream Chaser flight. (5/16)

Japan to Develop New Large Successor Rocket to H2-A (Source: Global Post)
Japan plans to develop a large successor rocket to its current mainstay H-2A launch vehicle, government sources said Friday. The government's seven-member advisory body on space policy, called the Committee on National Space Policy, plans to make an official decision on the development of the new rocket by the end of this month, the sources said.

If the plan is adopted, it would be the first document of a mainstay rocket since 1996 when Japan started development of the H-2A rocket. The panel is considering asking Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to develop the new rocket, the sources said. Mitsubishi Heavy developed the H-2A rocket, together with the now-defunct National Space Development Agency of Japan and its successor, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. (5/17)

NASA Official Puts Focus on Private Sector Partnership (Source: The Blade)
NASA’s second-in-command toured the space agency’s Northern Ohio research facilities Thursday in an effort to cast attention on the capabilities they have and the work they’re doing with private sector companies whose dreams lie beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Though recent reports have called NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and its Plum Brook Station outside Sandusky underused, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver came with a message that the scope of research possible at the two facilities is critical. Click here. (5/17)

India to Launch First Navigational Satellite on June 12 (Source: Economic Times)
India proposes to launch its first navigational satellite, which will provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and fleet management, on June 12. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1A is slated to be launched on board home-grown rocket, PSLV-C22 XL at 1.01 am from Sriharikota spaceport on June 12. (5/17)

Why The Sequester Could Be Bad For Johnson Space Center Employees (Source: KUHF)
Charles Bolden says the proposed NASA budget of $17.7 billion would advance the strategic plan the space agency has put together. At the same time, Bolden says, he’s concerned about possible effects the automatic spending cuts, better known as the sequester, could have on the NASA budget. If the agency has to operate under the sequester next year, its current $16.8 billion budget will go down instead of up, he says.

“At the $16.8 billion level, there’s no way in the world they can continue to operate a center like JSC at the level of employment they have right now. So not only will our contractors feel it the way they are now, but we’ll have to probably begin to furlough civil servants. So, I feel good about the budget proposal. I wish I felt better about the Congress’ ability to see the seriousness of the problem and solve sequester.” (5/17)

Is NASA About Jobs, or Actually Accomplishing Something? (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden had a rare (and welcome) availability with Houston area media on Thursday, and while he generally stuck to talking points, citing the space agency’s rosy future, moments of frustration slipped through the cracks. These slips are illuminating as they point out a central weakness and strength of NASA — its 10 centers spread across eight states.

The diversity of these centers, including sites in populous states like Texas, California, Florida and Ohio, ensures political clout for the agency in both houses of Congress. At the same time, NASA has to continually spread work around all of these centers and keep senators and representatives from the homes of each of the 10 happy. Which is to say, first and foremost, saving jobs.

"I always have to caution people, if your concern is jobs... you want to make sure that every center has something going that’s going to guarantee that every year we can do a new program or project that assures jobs, that’s nice. But we’ve also got to be accomplishing something that we can tell the American taxpayer 'this is worth the money we’re spending,' said Bolden. "The strategy that we have right now... we feel is a balanced portfolio that provides support across the agency for all 10 centers, keeps our workforce vibrant and viable working on things they really know and the nation needs." (5/17)

F-1 Project Tests Kansas Team's Mettle (Source: Hutchison News)
Crumpled-up chunks of metal rest in two large water-retention bins at the SpaceWorks division of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. The impact of each massive 18,000-pound engine falling more than 40 miles to the Atlantic Ocean crushed it like an aluminum can. Never mind that they were the most powerful single-nozzle, liquid-fueled rocket engines ever developed - they were still smashed. Each engine had 1.5 million pounds of thrust, which is more than three space-shuttle main engines combined, according to NASA.

They also are made of "some of the strongest metal alloys known to man," according to Jim Remar, president and COO of the Cosmosphere. In January, the Cosmosphere found out SpaceWorks would have an integral part in conserving the engines, pulled from the ocean by Amazon's Jeff Bezos. SpaceWorks is known for its artifact preservation, replication and exhibit design. It has completed more than 100 projects, including Apollo 13 and the Liberty Bell 7.

The Cosmosphere is working with NASA to determine exactly which missions the engines are from. Each engine piece has a serial number, but the impact into the ocean and years below water make those tough to find. The corrosion level on each of the components varies, Remar said. But the Cosmosphere is working to document how the engines look now. "The impact violently ripped the engines apart," said Remar. "Now we want to preserve it how they are - halt the corrosive process. We want to preserve them for generations to come." (5/17)

Space Florida Secures Bionetics as New Tenant at Space Life Sciences Lab (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida, the state’s aerospace development organization and spaceport authority, today announced that Bionetics Corp., a diversified engineering and applied sciences company, is the newest tenant of the Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) at the Kennedy Space Center. Bionetics, headquartered in Yorktown, Va., enhances spaceflight systems through the development of unique LED lighting and enables microgravity-based life sciences research. (5/17)

Crew of ULA Rocket Ship Cited by NTSB in Kentucky Bridge Accident (Source: Workboat.com)
The Delta Mariner’s wheelhouse crew failed “to use all available navigation tools” to avoid hitting the poorly lit Eggner’s Ferry Bridge over the Tennessee River in Kentucky, federal investigators concluded. The Jan. 26, 2012, nighttime collision tore away a 322-foot span of the bridge including a portion of U.S. Highway 68 near Aurora, Ky.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Tuesday that the crew of Foss Maritime Co.’s five-story high, 312' cargo ship and the contract pilot focused on the bridge’s few lights “while ignoring readily available electronic charting system displays, which could have provided critical information about the vessel’s position.”

An NTSB synopsis of its report also said Foss’ safety management system “was not effectively implemented … Due to the vessel’s good safety record and the company’s reliance on proactive safety measures and a crew of well-trained, experienced deep-sea mariners to provide a high level of safety, the company became complacent regarding the safety of the vessel’s operations.”

Nelson: Universities Booking Flights to Space (Source: Sen. Bill Nelson)
“It’s realistically going to get to the point where universities can buy a seat to send their students to space,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, chairman of the Senate’s Science and Space Subcommittee and co-author of the legislative plan that helps get private space ventures started in consort with NASA. You might send your class to the edge of space, go Mach 3, couple minutes of Zero-G, and then come back,” Nelson said. “That’s pretty exciting.” Click here. (5/17)

Scientists Agree (Again): Climate Change Is Happening (Source: Huffington Post)
Public opinion on the topic of climate change is notoriously fickle, changing -- quite literally sometimes -- with the weather. The latest bit of evidence on this: Yale's April 2013 climate change survey, which found, among other things, that Americans' conviction that global warming is happening had dropped by seven points, to 63 percent, over the preceding six months. The decline, the authors surmised, was most likely due to "the cold winter of 2012-13 and an unusually cold March just before the survey was conducted."

A far smaller percentage -- 49 percent -- understood that human activities are contributing to the problem. People and surveys being what they are, these numbers tend to jump around a bit from year to year. At the same time, 49 percent is nearly half the country, so it wouldn't be excessively cheerful (would it?) to note that half of the American public is more or less in harmony with basic science -- at least as it relates to climate change and the role carbon dioxide emissions play in exacerbating things. Given that roughly the same number of Americans flatly reject evolution, the climate numbers represent a comparative bounty of enlightenment. (5/16)

Orbcomm Ready To Ship 8 Satellites for Fall Launch on Upgraded Falcon 9 (Source: Space News)
Satellite machine-to-machine (M2M) messaging service provider Orbcomm said the launch of the first eight of its second-generation satellites is likely to occur this fall after its launch services provider, SpaceX, conducts the first two flights of the new Falcon 9 rocket. The launch, which has been delayed repeatedly, will better position Orbcomm in the competition with exactEarth, majority-owned by Canada’s Com Dev, to line up customers for a global automatic identification system (AIS) maritime surveillance service for coastal authorities. (5/16)

McAlister Discusses Commercial Crew Certification (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Phil McAlister, Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Development discussed the next steps that will be necessary for commercial crew providers to be certified to begin transportation of commercial crew to the International Space Station in 2017. Click here. (5/16)

CASIS Funds Protein Crystallization Research (Source: CASIS)
The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) announced an additional research grant award totaling approximately $200,000 for advancing protein crystallization in microgravity. In November 2012, CASIS announced grant awards totaling $1.2 million for three initial projects advancing protein crystallization in microgravity. In March 2013, two additional projects were awarded funding, totaling approximately $600,000, and now a sixth project will join this group of pioneering CASIS-awarded projects.

Dr. Constance Schall, from the University of Toledo, is the newest investigator to have a protein crystal growth proposal funded by CASIS. Dr. Schall seeks to use the space environment to grow crystals of sufficient size for neutron diffraction (a type of crystal analysis)—examining the effects of various experimental conditions on three proteins to optimize growth of quality crystals. (5/16)

Water Trapped For 1.5 Billion Years Could Hold Ancient Life (Source: NPR)
Scientists have discovered water that has been trapped in rock for more than a billion years. The water might contain microbes that evolved independently from the surface world, and it's a finding that gives new hope to the search for life on other planets. A team of scientists approached the miners in Ontario and asked them for fluid from newly drilled boreholes.

Greg Holland, a geochemist at Lancaster University in England, and his colleagues wanted to know just how long that fluid had been trapped in the rock. So they looked at the decay of radioactive atoms found in the water and calculated that it had been bottled up for a long time — at least 1.5 billion years. "That is the lower limit for the age," Holland says. It could be a billion years older. That means the water was sealed in the rock before humans evolved, before pterosaurs flew and before multicellular life.

As Holland announced this week in the journal Nature, this is the oldest cache of water ever found. But how did it end up underneath that gold mine in northeastern Canada? Where did it come from? "The fluids that we see now are actually preservations of ancient oceans," Holland says. Click here. (5/16)

Russia to Send ‘Stress-Relief’ Software to Space Station (Source: RIA Novosti)
A flash drive with stress-relief software for crew members of the Space Station will be taken to space by Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin soon. The software was designed by the Russian Union of Nature Photographers, with the assistance of the Federation Council, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament. According to Oleg Panteleyev, who along with other members of the upper chamber assisted the project, said the software is, in fact, a slideshow of thousands of photographs of the nature, accompanied by relaxing music. (5/16)

Wallops Noose Incident Update (Source: NASA Watch)
"The IG conducted an independent investigation into the circumstances of how and why the noose was placed at the Bldg. F-5 construction site. The IG's findings corroborated the results of the previous investigations conducted separately by the Office of Protective Services and the contractor. While the incident itself remains disturbing, it's important to note that none of the three investigations found evidence of criminal wrongdoing." 5/16)

California Officials: Guard Aerospace Innovators' Freedom to Create (Source: Sacramento Bee)
Last Congress, the House extended the Federal Aviation Administration learning period for spaceflight regulation through 2015. As a part of the FAA's reauthorization bill, this key provision granting regulatory certainty to the commercial spaceflight industry serves to allow for several years of flight testing and early commercial operation of new human spaceflight vehicles.

Last year, the California Legislature passed the Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law, assisting space tourism firms by providing limited indemnification. The California Senate is now considering Senate Bill 415 to extend the liability limitation to manufacturers and suppliers, which is critical to ensure that California stays competitive with states such as New Mexico and Texas.

If we are truly committed to economic prosperity, we need to continue to reduce over-regulation and over-litigation. As Californians, rather than allowing California's unfriendly business climate to restrict opportunity and increase costs that stifle future innovation, we must instead champion solutions that create a new business climate that preserves the California Dream, where an individual can still dream big, take risks and make the impossible a reality. (5/16)