News Summaries for December 8

Straub Named Director of Florida's TRDA (Source: Florida Today)
An upstate New York development official has been named executive director of Florida’s Technological Research and Development Authority by the authority’s board of directors. Chester Straub Jr., who for the past five years was president of the Ulster County Development Corp. in Kingston, N.Y., will assume the position at the Titusville-based development authority on Jan. 15. As executive director, Straub — who has 16 years of experience in economic development — will oversee the Technological Research and Development Authority’s $6 million budget and supervise a staff of 15 employees.

China Launches Weather Satellite (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Long March rocket launched China's second geostationary orbit weather satellite on Friday. The Long March 3A rocket lifted off from the Xichang spaceport in southwestern China and placed the Fengyun-2D (FY-2D) into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. 2D will join FY-2C, China's first GEO weather satellite, launched in 2004. The satellite will be used primarily to monitor weather conditions in western China and also support weather forecasting for the 2008 Olympics. The spacecraft has a three-year on-orbit lifetime.

Arianespace Successfully Launches Two Satellites from Kourou Spaceport (Source: Arianespace)
On Dec. 8, Arianespace placed two commercial satellites into geostationary transfer orbit for two private American operators: WildBlue-1 for WildBlue Communications and AMC-18 for SES AMERICOM. The Ariane 5 ECA launch vehicle took off from the French Guiana Spaceport in Kourou. This was the 30th Ariane 5 launch and the 16th success in a row. Over the last 12 months, Arianespace has orbited 12 communications satellites, plus an experimental payload. Today, Ariane 5 is the only commercial launcher in service capable of simultaneously launching two payloads.

The Moon or Bust: Southwest Florida Agent to Offer Space Travel (Source: Naples News)
Want to go to the moon? Naples travel agent Mary Ann Ramsey, with Betty Maclean Travel Inc., has been selected as part of a group of 45 consultants who will be trained to offer travel aboard Virgin Galactic's suborbital space flights. She's the only one chosen in Southwest Florida to become an "accredited space agent." Ramsey has made a five-year commitment to the program, which includes marketing and sales support in addition to training.

Editorial: New Mexico Could Benefit from Moon Base (Source: Albuquerque Tribune)
The space shuttles, the United States' only manned spacecraft, are to be retired in 2010 and the work of caring for the International Space Station will be largely turned over to others. So what, then, for this nation's grand plans of astronauts' returning to the moon and then going on to Mars? Our hopes, of course, aren't only for the nation or humankind but also for the future of New Mexico, which should be involved in the moon shots. New Mexico is the site of the proposed Spaceport America, the nation's first commercial, regional spaceport. Funding for the moon venture might well be sought from private entrepreneurs. What better place to link to space-venture capital than here?

Why Is It So Tough to Launch a Shuttle? (Source: ABC News)
It's not easy to schedule a shuttle launch. There is one five-minute window each day when Earth's rotation puts the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit — the launch site and the space station orbit must be in sync. Complicating this, the shuttle can only visit the station when the "beta angle" — the angle between the plane of the station's orbit and the sun — ensures the shuttle-station stack will not get too hot yet still be at an angle to allow the solar arrays to function. There is also a long list of rules prohibiting a shuttle launch if cloud cover is too low, too dense, or if it's too windy, too hot, too cold — or if there is a hint of rain near the launch pad or in the flight path of the shuttle and lightning in the area, forget it. Scrubbing a launch close to liftoff costs the space agency $500,000.

Monday Morning Rocket Launch Could Surprise East Coast Residents (Source: Space.com)
Should a rocket blast off on schedule early Monday morning from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia, a potentially spectacular sight might greet early risers en route to work and school. It would be the first attempt at launching an orbital rocket from this coastal Virginia range in over eleven years. It would also be one of the most powerful rockets that has ever been launched from Wallops. Should good weather conditions prevail, a 69-foot, 5-foot wide, 35-ton, four-stage Minotaur I rocket will liftoff at 7:00 a.m. EST. The chief goal of this flight is to place the 814-pound TacSat2 satellite with its 11 onboard experiments into a circular orbit 255 miles above the Earth. A launch window from Dec. 11 to Dec. 20, from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. each day, has been established to take into account bad weather or equipment glitches.

No Spaceport for Holloman AFB (Source: Alamogordo Daily News)
A story in Thursday's Daily News suggested that Holloman Air Force Base may become home to a New Mexico spaceport. Not true, according to Otero County Economic Development Council Director Ed Carr. "The spaceport coming to Holloman is absolutely not on the table," Carr said Thursday. "The spaceport is firmly fixed in Upham and that has always been the plan." Also, the yearly X-PRIZE event, held this year for the second time at the Las Cruces Airport, will move to the planned spaceport as soon as the facility is ready. That plan never changed either. It is possible, however, that the X-PRIZE event may unite with the Holloman Air Force Base Air Show on a temporary basis. Planning for such a merger is in preliminary stages,

Space Tourism to be Fashion's Final Frontier (Source: Reuters)
You've booked your seat on the spaceship and passed the medical -- but what to wear for that flight into the final frontier? Orbital Outfitters has the answer. The new Los Angeles-based company on Thursday promised to dress the first space tourists and crew members in style. "When someone puts on an IS3 (sub-orbital space suit), they will be protected by the best technology we can muster, yet they will look like they've stepped off the set of a science fiction movie," said Orbital Outfitters president Rick Tumlinson. "With billionaires funding the new space companies and passengers paying up to $200,000 for a ride, safety is important. We intend to also make it chic," Tumlinson said.

The suits would be produced in the Los Angeles area, by a team headed by Oscar-winning designer Chris Gilman, who is Orbital Outfitter's chief executive officer and chief designer. The specifications call for the suit to provide life support functions for 30 minutes or longer at 500,000 feet - while also providing mobility and comfort. The first suits will be custom-built for suborbital test pilots. "We're leasing, not selling," Tumlinson said. A typical lease for a crew suit might run for six months or 100 flights, for tens of thousands of dollars over the term. The passenger version of the suit probably won't have as much mobility, and would be leased on a one-time basis for thousands of dollars, Tumlinson said. (That cost would likely be rolled into the flight operator's package cost.) The cost of leasing the suit for one trip is expected to be about $3-6,000.

Sirius Sees Benefits in Potential Merger With XM (Source: Washington Post)
Executives of Sirius Satellite Radio are again hinting at a potential merger with XM Satellite Radio that they say would bring strong gains for investors. Their statements boosted the stock prices of Sirius and XM this week, though both settled by the end of trading yesterday.

China to Launch 22 More Meteorological Satellites by 2020 (Source: Xinhua)
China will launch another 22 meteorological satellites by 2020 after successfully putting Fengyun-2D (FY-2D), its second geostationary orbit meteorological satellite, into orbit on Friday. The 22 satellites include four more from the Fengyun-2 series, 12 from the Fengyun-3 series and six Fengyun-4 series, according to sources with the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). Fengyun-2E, Fengyun-2F, Fengyun-2G and Fengyun-2H are scheduled to be launched in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014 respectively.