News Summaries for November 14

Spacehab's Astrotech Subsidiary Wins Payload Facility Work (Source: SpaceRef.com)
Spacehab's Astrotech Space Operations subsidiary has been awarded a $20.0 million contract to design and build a payload processing facility for the U.S. Government. This facility, to be used for pre-launch spacecraft processing, will be located on the Company’s existing 60-acre site at Vandenberg Air Force Base and will enhance the West Coast capabilities already provided. Under a firm fixed-price contract with the Government, design work begins immediately with construction commencing March 2007 and concluding September 2009. Under the terms of the contract, Astrotech will design and construct the facility to government requirements while maintaining ownership and operation of the facility.

Report Reveals Space Industry at $180 Billion (Source: Space Foundation)
A new Space Foundation report finds the space industry now tops $180 billion in annual global revenues, and a newly created index of space equities has outperformed both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ. The report identifies nine distinct sectors for global space activities and describes the full range of space activities: space infrastructure, space products and services, space revenues and government budgets, how space products and services are used, their impact, and the outlook for the future.

$330 Million SpaceEdutainment Theme Park Investor Road Show Blasts Off (Source: eMediaWire)
KPMG has just completed a Market and Financial Feasibility Study and a Business Plan for SpacePort Shenyang (China) and has found it to be viable. SpacePortEdutainment, a South African company, is the visionary and developer of the SpacePort "Destination" concept. The vision is to build world-class "next generation" space, science and technology theme parks and edutainment centers, which will provide a "space tourism experience" on Planet Earth for those unable to travel into space.

SpacePortEdutainment plans to build SpacePort Shenyang, a $330 million, 20 hectare, space theme park in Shenyang, North East China, due to open in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. "The City of Shenyang is whole heartedly supporting the SpacePort Shenyang project, which is regarded as an important asset for the 2008 Olympic Games. SpacePort Shenyang, will become a sought after destination creating many jobs and will become a welcome boost for the local economy" says Shenyang's Deputy Mayor Song Qi.

SpacePort Shenyang is the first of several SpacePorts that are in the pipeline. The next planned site is SpacePortAfrica, a $75 million project that will form part of "Africa Theme Park Resort", a $550 million theme park resort development in Johannesburg. SpacePortAfrica is due to open in October 2009 in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. In total, SpacePortEdutainment has more than five SpacePort "Destination" projects on its radar screen at this time. This includes a well positioned SpacePortMoscow. Visit http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/11/emw477881.htm to view the article.

Loral Gets $18 Million from ILS, $14 Million From Boeing (Source: Space News)
International Launch Services (ILS) has paid Space Systems/Loral $18 million in cash, settling the two companies’ four-year-old dispute regarding refunds of deposits Loral made on launch contracts it later canceled. Loral Space and Communications announced Nov. 13 that it also has received a $14.9 million payment from Boeing following Boeing’s early cancellation of a lease of a Loral satellite providing service for Boeing’s Connexion broadband service to commercial airline passengers. Boeing is ending the service at the end of this year.

Report: Space Projects Expected to Grow (Source: AIA)
Space projects accounted for almost $180 billion in industry revenue and government budgets in 2005, a new publication by the Space Foundation found. The report predicts the satellite-radio market will grow from 12 million units installed in 2005 to 55 million units in 2010.

Virginia Commercial Space Industry Poised for Takeoff (Source: Washington Post)
On the morning of the launch, range safety officer Mike Patterson will have his thumbs on two switches: left for "arm," right for "destruct." He hopes he won't have to flip them, but he has in the past, and he will if things go bad. Test director Jay Brown will be in the control room watching the stop-and-go light tree, hoping it stays green. And Rick Baldwin, who helped build the rocket's 12-story service gantry with parts from Home Depot, should be in the concrete blockhouse just up the beach from the pad.

If all goes as hoped, at about 7 a.m. Dec. 11, a new day in the local aerospace industry will begin when the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launches a 69-foot, green and white Minotaur I rocket carrying satellites for the Air Force and NASA. It will be the culmination of a decade-long effort to start a regional, state-backed space launch industry and one that its creators believe could someday send tourists from the shores of Virginia to outer space. Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301507.html to view the article.

Panspermia: Searching for 'Our Alien Origins' (Source: BBC)
In July 2001, a mysterious red rain started falling over a large area of southern India. Locals believed that it foretold the end of the world, though the official explanation was that it was desert dust that had blown over from Arabia. But one scientist in the area, Dr Godfrey Louis, was convinced there was something much more unusual going on. Not only did Dr Louis discover that there were tiny biological cells present, but because they did not appear to contain DNA, the essential component of all life on Earth, he reasoned they must be alien lifeforms.

His remarkable work has set in motion a chain of events with scientists around the world debating the origin of these mysterious cells. The main reason why Dr Louis's ideas have not been immediately laughed out of court is because they tie in with a theory promoted by two UK scientists ever since the 1960s. The late Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe have been the champions of "Panspermia", the idea that life on Earth originated on another planet. Visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6146292.stm to view the article.

NASA Running Out of Options to Contact MGS (Source: SpaceToday.net)
NASA is enlisting other Mars orbiting spacecraft to try and determine what has gone wrong with an aging orbiter that has not communicated with Earth for over a week. Controllers last heard from Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) on Nov. 5, three days after experiencing a problem with a motor that drives one of the spacecraft's solar panels. On Friday the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will take images of MGS when the two spacecraft pass about 150 km from each other in orbit. NASA also plans to try to have MGS establish communications with the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on the surface. MGS was launched ten years ago this month and long ago achieved its primary mission, but is still used for both science and communications operations. Project officials remain optimistic that MGS can be recovered, so long as the spacecraft still has power.

NASA Clarifies Ares 1 Lift Issue (Source: NASA Watch)
In a memo to staff, NASA's Constellation program manager addressed recent articles raising concerns about the lift capabilities of the Ares 1 vehicle: "...the latest set of analyses indicate that the Ares 1 can lift 58 klbm to the program-specified injection point of -30 x 100 nmi...This compares favorably to the requirement that we specified for the Ares 1 to inject 52.1 klbm.

Blue Origin Conducts First Flight Test (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Blue Origin, the secretive commercial space venture established by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, performed the first flight test Monday of its suborbital vehicle. The low-level flight took place at about 7:30 am EST from Blue Origin's test site in Texas, and lasted one to two minutes, according to FAA officials. A "notice to airmen" from the FAA last week cleared airspace around the test site to an altitude of about 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) from Nov. 10-13 to permit the flights, although the vehicle being flown was not expected to go more than about 600 meters high in these initial tests. The company did not immediately disclose any details about the test.

SpaceDev Reports Third Quarter Fiscal 2006 Results (Source: SpaceDev)
SpaceDev reported over $7 million in revenues for the quarter, or an increase of over 213%, compared to revenue of $2.2 million during the same three month period last year. For the nine months ended September 30, 2006, the Company reported revenues of $22.8 million, or an increase of over 383%, compared with revenues of $5.9 million for the same nine month period last year. The Company also reported net income of approximately $21,000 and positive EBITDA of over $230,000 for the third quarter of 2006 and net income of $65,000 and a positive EBITDA of $682,000 for the nine months ended September 30, 2006.

Moon's Magnetic Umbrella Seen as Safe Haven for Explorers (Source: Space.com)
The lunar surface is a harsh landscape; bombarded by solar and cosmic radiation that gradually darkens the dust and corrupts the cells of any astronauts present. Yet amidst this hostile landscape a number of safer havens exist where the lunar surface escapes much of this sleet of radiation. One such benign feature, named Reiner Gamma, lies on the Moon’s Earth facing side and is marked by a 37-mile-long (60 km) bright swirl and one of the strongest magnetic fields found on the lunar surface.

Isolated pockets of lunar magnetism were discovered in the early 1970’s by lunar-orbiting spacecraft. The bright swirls of Reiner Gamma are a by-product of the contorted magnetic field arching overhead. The magnetic field would deflect the solar wind. Not only does the magnetic field preserve an unsullied lunar surface but it would partially protect any astronauts strolling beneath, “The lunar fields are strong enough to deflect solar wind ions with energies of several kilo-electron-volts.”