News Summaries for January 30

Hubble Camera Fails (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A key instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope shut down over the weekend and is likely all but lost for good. The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) shut down Saturday morning when its backup power supply failed, temporarily putting the entire spacecraft into a protective safe mode. While the spacecraft itself has been recovered and will resume scientific observations this week, the ACS has failed permanently, other than one channel of the instrument used for a small fraction of the instrument's observations. The ACS was Hubble's most popular instrument because of its ability to peer deep into the universe. The instrument, which failed just shy of its designed five-year lifetime, had shut down twice in the last year because of power supply problems. Although a final Hubble servicing mission is scheduled for next year, there is no room in the current mission plan to perform any repairs to the ACS.

Any Mars Life Deep Underground (Source: SpaceToday.net)
If the planet Mars still harbors any living organisms, they must exist well below the surface to avoid being killed by radiation, scientists concluded in a new study. Scientists said a model of the solar and galactic radiation that reaches the surface of Mars showed that such radiation would kill any life on the surface and to a depth of at least several meters. At deeper levels, though, life could exist if it has access to liquid water and organic material. The best place to look, the study concluded, would be within what scientists believe to be a frozen sea in the Elysium region of the planet.

Senator Urges Stance on China Test (Source: CNN.com)
A Republican senator is criticizing the Bush administration for failing to confront aggressively China's test of a satellite-killing weapon, which he called a provocative militarization of space. Senator Jon Kyl said neither President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican, nor top members of the president's administration have made public statements about the test. Kyl also criticized Democratic leaders and the State Department. "Key policy makers seem oblivious to the nature and the urgency of the threat," Kyl told an audience at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "It's time to start speaking out about this."

Gov. Touts Spaceport's Educational, Economic Aid (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Gov. Bill Richardson urged local residents to support the sales tax for a proposed spaceport, saying it will bring educational opportunities and jobs to the area. But a handful of tax opponents picketed just outside the middle school where Richardson spoke, arguing the tax would be better spent improving infrastructure throughout Doña Ana County. Richardson repeatedly touted the possible economic benefits of a spaceport and cited a New Mexico State University study that indicated the project could create 5,000 new jobs. "I'm asking every citizen to go out and vote yes on the spaceport because it is the future," he said.

The $225 million Spaceport America is being proposed as a site about 40 miles north of Las Cruces in Sierra County. Vado resident Mitch Boyer said he's not opposed to the spaceport, but he doesn't think local residents should be taxed for it. "It's like a reverse Robin Hood effect, stealing from the poor and giving to the rich" to go into space, he said.

India Plans to Bring Down Rocket Costs (Source: domain-B)
With Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) entering the global commercial launch market in a major way and also lining up several space missions for the nation's use, the space agency is now taking steps to cut down the cost of launch vehicles. The cost cutting measures include reducing the number of fuel stages in a vehicle; use of new air breathing engines; using cheaper fuel and modular assembling. As ISRO is far away from making reusable launch vehicles, cutting costs in its existing program has become imperative. ISRO officials are not happy with the vendors as their prices have not come down significantly though the order volumes have gone up. This year ISRO is planning to launch 4 or 5 rockets.

Boeing Lobbies Louisiana for NASA Project (Source: The Advocate)
Boeing is lobbying Louisiana officials this week in a bid to win a multibillion-dollar Ares rocket assembly project at NASA’s Michoud facility in east New Orleans. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will administer the new program — which would take place at Michoud — to build Ares upper-stage rockets that will return manned missions to the moon and possibly extend them to Mars in the Constellation program that will succeed the space shuttle. Much of this week’s effort is about building internal knowledge of the Michoud facility for Boeing executives, scientists and engineers, though the company held a reception for state officials Monday night.

NASA will seek bids in a Feb. 23 request for proposals that will be due sometime in late spring, he said. A winner will be announced in August. Lockheed Martin also is bidding to continue work at Michoud and is expected to be Boeing’s leading competition. The Lockheed Martin bid likely will include Alliant Techsystems and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne as partners. Specific numbers for the first leg of the rocket program aren’t known, but the contract will be sizable and eventually employ more people than the 2,000 working at Michoud.

Probe Finds NASA Chief Didn't Break Law (Source: AP)
A federal watchdog agency has closed its investigation into whether NASA's chief administrator violated the law when he urged an audience to support former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. But the Office of Special Counsel sent a warning letter to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, saying he should have used better judgment, even if he did not break a law against using official authority to influence an election.

Separately, the agency found that NASA officials did violate the law when they allowed a speech by Sen. John Kerry at Kennedy Space Center to be broadcast and played over the Internet to workers at the facility. Kerry was running for president at the time, in 2004. Because NASA officials were given incorrect legal advice allowing the broadcast, their only punishment will be to educate their work force and contractors about the law, the agency said.

China to Launch Lunar Exploration in 2007 (Source: Hindustan Times)
China will launch its third manned space flight, first lunar exploration and a number of other science and technology initiatives this year, Minister of Science and Technology, Xu Guanhua announced. Large planes, a new generation of wireless communications and exploration of large oil and gas fields will also be high on the government's agenda.

Europe Plans GPS Rocket Navigation (Source: Flight International)
A study into use of the Galileo and GPS satellite navigation systems for launcher mission management and control could see the European Space Agency's new Vega small launch vehicle use the technology. Satellite-based systems could aid the rocket's on-board systems by providing a secondary, back-up source of guidance and navigation data. The ESA-funded study will look at the impact of using satellite navigation with Ariane and Vega launchers. EADS will perform the study, with an initial result expected by the end of 2007.

ESA Could Become an EU Agency (Source: Flight International)
The European Space Agency could be a European Union body by 2014, if plans by the organization's director-general succeed. The idea has radical implications for how ESA's $3.7 million budget is funded and for the membership of some states. ESA members Norway and Switzerland are not EU states, nor is Canada, which is also only a co-operating ESA member.

India Gets Ready for Space Wars (Source: Asian News)
India will set up an airspace defense center to oppose space attacks. India is by far not the only state that is interested in space as strategic area. China, for instance, tested its anti-satellite weapons January 12, having made clear the intention to explore near-Earth space environment in military purposes. The incident rose concerns in the U.S., which called the missile a satellite killer. Developing and testing such weapons contradict the spirit of cooperation between two countries, the White House commented duly supported by Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea. On the other hand, quite a few analysts, including from the United States, have repeatedly blamed on Washington the intention to establish a base for developing space weapons and militarizing the near-Earth space.

Taxman grounds US Space Tourist (Source: BBC)
Some ultra-rich travellers can afford to pay for their own trip to space. A US man who won a free trip to space in an online competition has had to cancel it, after realising he would have to pay tax on his prize. Californian Brian Emmett, 31, who describes himself as a space buff, learned he would have to report the $138,000 ride as income and pay $25,000 tax. Not wanting to go into debt, Mr Emmett decided to give up his seat. Because the IRS requires winnings from lotteries, TV shows and other competitions to be reported as taxable income, some tax experts believe space prizes will never take off in a big way.

Money Worries Loom as NASA Plots Missions to Mars, Moon (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA's moon mission is on financially safe ground, but a congressional budget crunch could mean other parts of the agency will suffer. The anticipated shortfall -- at least $500 million -- stems from inaction by Congress in 2006, when lawmakers left undone nearly every major spending bill needed for fiscal year 2007. "NASA's problem is that it's not a national priority. It's not a national priority in a time of war. It's not a national priority in a time of deficit," said Roger Handberg, a professor at the University of Central Florida who specializes in space policy. Without guarantees, NASA may have to cut money from some projects if it intends to launch new initiatives -- including its goal to ramp up manned space flight.

Ohio Joins Other States in Considering Private Spaceports (Source: Columbus Dispatch)
David Whitaker’s job is to attract more air service to Columbus, hoping to land flights to destinations such as San Diego, Seattle and Kansas City. But outer space? Whitaker recently briefed board members who oversee the Port Columbus and Rickenbacker airports about ongoing discussions to lure PlanetSpace, a Chicago company that is looking to offer customers 20-minute joyrides into space for $200,000 a pop. PlanetSpace, a company with operations in Chicago and Canada, is in talks with state and local development officials about incentives to set up operations around Rickenbacker Airport.

Shia Islamic Satellite Set for Liftoff on ICBM Cloaked as Space Booster (Source: Aviation Week)
Iran has just completed conversion of a powerful ballistic missile into a satellite launch vehicle. But the 25-30-ton rocket could be a wolf in sheep's clothing to test longer-range Iranian missile technologies. The Bush administration will likely view the vehicle as a rogue rocket developed in a cabal of Iran and North Korea. The new launcher has recently been assembled and "will lift off soon," says Alaoddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

If the Iranians are successful with the space launch program, it will have political and technological ramifications in both the U.S. and the Middle East. "It would move the Iranians from the junior varsity into the big leagues," one U.S. analyst said. In a report for an Israeli think tank, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Uzi Rubin says Iran could adapt the satellite launcher into a longer-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). "In 2006, the Iranian political leadership seems to have moved beyond the needs of self-defense and is now talking about global power projection," says Rubin, who oversaw development of the Israel Arrow anti-ballistic missile system.

Virgin Galactic Strikes Deal with Swedish Government (Source: Space.com)
The Swedish government on Jan. 26 announced an agreement with suborbital space-tourism company Virgin Galactic that Swedish officials believe will lead to midsummer and mid-winter flights of Virgin's SpaceshipTwo vehicle to observe the Aurora Borealis from Sweden. The agreement, signed at the proposed future launch site in Kiruna, Sweden, calls for no exchange of funds. Swedish officials say the Kiruna facility, already known for launching suborbital sounding rockets and atmospheric balloons, has sufficient infrastructure to accommodate Virgin Galactic and that no new investment is needed. The agreement calls for Swedish authorities to prepare a regulatory regime modeled on what the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is doing in the United States.

NASA Has to Fight the Forgetting (Source: MSNBC)
Astronauts had died before, in aircraft accidents associated with their training, but the Apollo fire on Jan. 27, 1967, was different. They were in spacesuits, in their spacecraft, on the pad, and in radio contact with Mission Control in Houston — about as close to a real mission as they could get. The idea of people getting killed while doing a space mission was accepted in light of how hard and risky spaceflight clearly was. But when it actually happened, all the anticipation and speculation was forgotten in the shock of the moment. It hurt then, and it still hurts now.

Now as America’s return to the moon gathers strength, NASA is gathering anew the wisdom and insights of the Apollo experience. Documents, memoirs and even interviews with veterans are providing clues to the methodologies and mental attitudes that created an Earth-moon transportation system with high reliability and adequate robustness, even in the face of breakdowns such as Apollo 13. If we accept the “inevitability” of the disaster, and of the Challenger and Columbia tragedies that followed (and are also memorialized now in a three-for-one NASA observance), and if we congratulate ourselves for “how much the sacrifices taught us,” we are ducking a fearsome responsibility. It is this: We should have known already, and people should not have had to die to remind us. The later disasters were not “accidents,” random and unavoidable — they were consequences of complacency and carelessness.

Honeywell Profit Up; Shares Slide (Source: Reuters)
Honeywell reported an almost 14 percent rise in profit on Friday, but its shares declined after it forecast first-quarter earnings below expectations. Fourth-quarter earnings increased to $585 million, from $514 million a year earlier. Revenue came in at $8.28 billion, up 13.8 percent from $7.28 billion, on growth at all four of the company's divisions -- aerospace, automation and control systems, specialty materials and transportation systems.

Recycled Satellite Radio Planned (Source: BBC)
An advanced in-car multimedia system that could use recycled television satellites coming to the end of their working lives has been unveiled. The prototype system, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), offers high-quality radio, video and data. The satellite radio component also overcomes problems such as loss of signal when driving through tunnels. If commercialised, the system would offer the first in-car satellite radio service available to Europeans.

NASA Studies Early Moon Shot for Orion (Source: Space News)
NASA is studying a variant of its planned Ares 5 heavy-lift rocket that would enable an Apollo 8-like trip around the Moon in the 2015 time frame. Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center will study a rocket design that would combine the Ares 5 main stage with the Ares 1 upper stage to permit an around-the-Moon-and-back shakeout flight of the Orion several years ahead of the first lunar landings.

NASA Puts Orion on a Weight Loss Program (Source: Space News)
NASA wants the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle to shed about 1,350 kilograms by the time it weighs in again this spring even though the spacecraft is still light enough to be lifted by its Ares 1 rocket. Scott Horowitz, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, told reporters that the preliminary designs for Ares 1 show that the two-stage rocket has “more than sufficient performance” to put the 22,800-kilogram Orion spacecraft into orbit. He acknowledged, however, that Orion’s six-person crew module gained some weight between September and December as Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the spacecraft’s Denver-based prime contractor, made some changes to its winning design — at NASA’s request. He said the design changes ate into an 3,600-kilogram-to-4,500-kilogram reserve NASA would like to keep largely intact at least until a formal preliminary design review slated for April 2008.

Launch Debris Trail Puzzles ULA Delta 4 Program Managers (Source: Space News)
United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 program managers have launched an investigation to determine the source of an unexpectedly large trail of debris that came off the vehicle’s upper stage following November’s launch of a U.S. Air Force meteorological satellite. The launch also demonstrated, for the first time, a re-entry maneuver that permitted the upper stage to exit a heavily used orbit and to remove the risk of a future uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry. The rocket's excess fuel was used to propel the upper stage out of orbit into the Pacific Ocean within two hours of launch.

Thailand Returns Recovered Delta 2 Motor to U.S. Air Force (Source: Space News)
The upper-stage motor of a Delta 2 rocket launched in 2000 re-entered the atmosphere in 2005 and landed in rural Thailand. It has recently been returned to the U.S. Air Force following negotiations with Thai government officials who initially had sought to keep the hardware for exhibition in a museum. The return to the United States was slowed by the coup d’etat in Thailand in September, which complicated negotiations. No injuries or property damage were reported, Putman said.

China Says It Remains Opposed to Weapons in Space (Source: Space News)
The Chinese government insisted the test should not be viewed as a hostile act or as a shift in China’s position that space should be a demilitarized zone. The Chinese anti-satellite test also prompted a U.S. State Department assertion that no nation, including the United States, should destroy orbiting satellites because the debris created in heavily populated trafficked orbital corridors could pose a danger to operating satellites. In a Jan. 23 press briefing in Beijing, Liu Jianchao, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said: “Neither has China participated, nor will it participate, in an arms race in outer space, in any form,” according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the ministry.

Goddard Contract Rescinded After Protest Filed (Source: Space News)
NASA is reconsidering its decision to award a five-year, $400 million engineering support services contract to SGT, Inc. of Greenbelt, Md. following a protest by the contract’s long-time incumbent, Swales Aerospace of Beltsville, Md, according to government and industry officials. For SGT, winning the Mechanical Systems Engineering Services contract was something of a coup. For Swales, it meant losing an important piece of NASA business the company has performed for two decades and one that provides work for about a third of its 900-person workforce.

Japan Arrests Couple Linked to Alleged Missile Tech Leak to North Korea (Source: Space News)
Japanese police said they have arrested an ethnic Korean engineer and his wife for labor law violations, amid allegations the man may have helped divert missile technology to North Korea.

Chinese A-Sat Test Called “One of the Worst Ever” Debris Incidents (Source: Space News)
The Jan. 11 Chinese anti-satellite (A-Sat) test now ranks as one of “the worst space debris events” in history, according to one expert on space debris, who pointed to the latest posting of orbital debris data by NORAD. That data shows an additional 484 pieces related to the deliberate kinetic destruction of the Chinese weather satellite FY-1C.

Two French Satellites Face Long Delays (Source: Space News)
The launch of the French dual-use Pleiades high-resolution optical satellite system is likely to slip to 2010, an 18-month delay, following development hurdles on the satellites' detectors and filters, CNES President Yannick d'Escatha said Jan. 26.

Europe-Based Interceptors Would Address Iran Missile Threat (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon hopes to have an operational interceptor field in Poland by 2011 or 2012 to counter a potential threat from Iran, although he cautioned that there is no firm agreement yet from the Polish government. The Pentagon also is working on an agreement under which the Czech Republic would host an X-band radar that has been used to support U.S. missile defense tests from the Kwajalein Atoll. The missile interceptors in Poland would be operated by U.S. forces; the sensor on Czech soil would not require operators on site, but would require U.S. personnel for maintenance and defense purposes. The projects would cost about $3.5 billion combined.