News Summaries for January 25

NASA Ceremony Marks Transition to Constellation (Source: NASA)
NASA's Kennedy Space Center will host a ceremony on Jan. 30 to commemorate the transition of the historic Operations and Checkout Building high bay for use by the Constellation Program. Originally built to process space vehicles in the Apollo era, the building will serve as the final assembly facility for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Orion will be capable of transporting four crewmembers for lunar missions and later will support crew transfers for Mars missions. Orion may be used to support up to six crewmembers to the Space Station after the space shuttle is retired in 2010. Representatives from NASA, Lockheed Martin, Space Florida and the State of Florida will participate in the ceremony. Florida is providing funds to convert the facility for Orion assembly operations.

XCOR Official Lectures at Embry-Riddle (Source: ERAU)
Aerodynamicist Paul Glessner spokek on “The Basics and Secrets of Vehicle Aerodynamics” on Jan. 25 at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach campus. Glessner has served as an aerospace engineer on projects such as the CH-46/47, F-14, Black projects, S-3, P-3, High Speed Civil Transport, B-717, F/A-22, and the Space Shuttle. He currently works for XCOR Aerospace as their chief aerodynamicist.

Column: Space Travel Strategic for U.S. (Source: AIA)
Space travel is difficult and dangerous, but it is part of what makes the U.S. a great country, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin writes in an editorial in Florida Today. He called using the space station and building a moon outpost "critical milestones" for the U.S. to become a truly spacefaring nation.

Lockheed Profit Rises (Source: Reuters)
Lockheed Martin's fourth-quarter profit rose 28 percent, raising its full-year profit forecast, as the world's No. 1 defense contractor posted strong sales of military gear and electronic systems. The company, which is taking advantage of record levels in U.S. defense spending, extra funding for operations in Iraq and more outsourcing of government technology projects, said profit increased to $729 million, compares with $568 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 6 percent to $10.8 billion. Profit easily beat Wall Street's forecast of $1.45 per share.

"Accredited Space Agent" Training at Kennedy Space Center (Source: MaineToday.com)
“Fly me to the moon” is no longer a romantic notion, it’s a request that Virtuoso travel consultant Pamela Hurley-Moser will soon hear. Virgin Galactic, in conjunction with Virtuoso, recently announced the travel consultants who will train to become “Accredited Space Agents” – the first and only consultants in North America allowed to reserve seats aboard Virgin Galactic’s suborbital space flights. Pamela Hurley-Moser is among an elite group of 45 consultants selected to Kennedy Space Center and join the Mach 3.3 team for training on February 1st and 2nd in Florida.

Blogger Reviews Clinton and Giuliani on Space Issues (Source: Spaceports.blogspot.com)
Kathleen Connell's blog article entitled:"Early Front Runners Clinton, Giuliani and Space" describes the established presidential frontrunners insights on space issues as the 2008 presidential race begins. Hopefully, more information will come to light on the various primary candidates of both parties prior to popular votes next year enabling more informed citizen decisions on presidnetial space leadership for the future. Commentary on presidential candidate positions on space-related matters are welcomed from both Republican and Democratic advocates so long as they are relevant to space policy. Click here to view the article.

Virginia Spaceport Advocacy Expands to Money in 2007 (Source: Spaceports.blogspot.com)
Virginia's state legislature now has more than 12% of the 140-member House and Senate on public record seeking "to make the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport the premiere commercial hub for space travel." Legislators also have a growing number of legislative measures calling for studies, an areospace council for the governor, and tax breaks and iron-clad liability waivers for space launch firms who may use the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in the years ahead.

The Spaceflight Liability and Immunity Act would grant immunity to spaceflight entities providing spaceflight activities to any participant in a suborbital flight. The bill also provides a state corporate income tax exemption for the sale of passenger tickets on a suborbital spaceflight conducted by a spaceflight entity and any gain recognized as a result of resupply services contracts entered with the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services division of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The decade old commercial spaceport, first licesed by the FAA in 1997, currently gets only $100,000 annually from the Virginia treasury while Maryland provides $150,000 and is expected to nearly double that amount later this year. Virginia space advocates are urging people to contact legislators to not only pass the tax breaks and liability waivers for commercial space launch firms to locate in the state but to increase the funding for the spaceport operations. A space advocay group is forming a political action committee (PAC) to assist legislators with pro-spaceport views in the 2007 state election cycle. The legislation being considered this year will give the PAC a record on which to base funding decisions this fall, an organizer said. The Space Frontier Foundation has e-mailed its Virginia network to get involved in the political process and support the spaceport legislation last week. Other space advocacy groups are being asked to do likewise.

Virginia Spaceport Gearing-Up for April 21 Night Launch (Source: Spaceports.blogspot.com)
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is gearing-up for its second orbital launch between 3:30 AM and 6 AM in the pre-dawn hours of April 21st. The 2nd launch follows the success of the first ever utilization of the FAA-AST commercial licensed spaceport last December along the Virginia Atlantic coastline, according to Dr. Billie Reed, the launch director for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. Orbital Sciences will again be using the Minotaur to boost a payload to low earth orbit from the facility for the USAF. The commercial spaceport pad sustained no significant damage coming from the December 16 launch with range, operations, and pad utilization at an exteremely competitive cost, according to Dr. Reed.

Aerospace Foreign Trade Surplus Continues to Grow (Source: AIA)
Foreign trade in the aerospace industry is continuing to show strength, with a record trade balance of $52 billion for the aerospace industry in 2006. According to AIA's Aerospace Research Center, exports of aerospace products were projected to soar to nearly $82 billion in 2006 while imports remained relatively flat at a bit under $30 billion. See more 2006 industry statistics at http://www.aia-aerospace.org/stats/yr_ender/yr_ender.cfm.

Loral Wins Contract to Build EchoStar Satellite (Source: Loral)
Loral has been awarded a contract to manufacture a new direct broadcast satellite (DBS) for EchoStar and its DISH Network service to more than 13 million direct-to-home (DTH) television subscribers.