News Summaries for February 2

NASA Clears Mars Lander Despite Overruns (Source: SpaceToday.net)
NASA officials have decided to let a Mars lander mission scheduled for launch later this year proceed despite cost overruns. The Phoenix mission underwent a "termination review" at NASA headquarters last week after the project indicated it would exceed its $386-million cost cap by as much as $31 million. Project officials blamed the increased costs on problems with a commercial radar altimeter they had planned to use on the spacecraft, as well as delays in finding a suitable landing site on Mars. NASA has not indicated how much additional money it will provide the project, or what effect providing that money would have on other agency programs. Phoenix, based on hardware developed for a cancelled 2001 lander mission, is scheduled for launch in August.

Cuts for NASA Would Seriously Endanger the Space Effort (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
America's space program will suffer a serious setback if Congress doesn't undo cuts in a misguided House spending plan. Unless the dollars for NASA are restored, the expected four-year gap -- already too long -- between the scheduled 2010 retirement of the shuttle and the launch of its successor, Orion, could widen by another year. That's another year that U.S. astronauts would be grounded. A longer gap would further erode America's leadership in space exploration. It would delay the breakthroughs in science and technology that accompany spaceflight. Such breakthroughs have played a valuable role in this country's economic growth and global competitiveness.

And with the military importance of space growing, national security also would suffer from a longer gap. Other countries, including Russia and China, are charging ahead with their manned space programs. House Republicans are griping that they didn't have any input into the stopgap spending plan. It's hard to feel too sorry for them; their failure to pass a budget when they still had control on Capitol Hill opened the way for Democrats to put together their own plan reflecting their own priorities. The House plan is headed to the Senate, where Florida Democrat Bill Nelson -- a staunch advocate for the space program -- is among several members seeking to undo NASA's cut. If they fail, they will need to seize other opportunities to restore funds for the agency. Those could come in a supplemental spending bill, or in the budget for the year that begins Oct. 1.

Raytheon Reports 32% Profit Jump in Q4 (Source: AIA)
Raytheon reports fourth-quarter profits climbed 32% to $365 million. The results included a gain from the $3.3 billion sale of its Raytheon Aircraft unit. Revenue rose to $5.72 billion from $5.12 billion in the previous year.

NASA Searches for New Landing Site for New Mars Rover (Source: AIA)
NASA plans to launch a long-armed robot on a mission to Mars this summer. Scientists are looking for a new place to land the robot after ruling out the original landing spot when images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed huge boulders spread over old crater rims on flat plains. The robot will search for signs of primitive life on Mars.

FAA to Issue Rules on Commercial Spacecraft Later This Year (Source: AIA)
The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation in the next few months will issue its final rules for licenses for commercial spacecraft. The rules are intended to protect public safety and ensure that passengers make informed decisions about space travel before boarding private spacecraft.

Orbital Sciences in Arizona Growth Spurt (Source: Arizona Republic)
Orbital Sciences is growing so fast in Chandler that it's looking for room to expand and is hiring 100 engineers and business professionals. The 40-acre campus, the company's second-largest site, supports the design and development of three groups of rockets: Those that launch satellites for NASA or the military, including the Pegasus, the Taurus and the Minotaur; Interceptors that could destroy hostile missiles headed for the United States; and Rockets that mimic those an enemy would launch. These provide target practice for the U.S. military. Rocket parts from the Chandler site are assembled with motors at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

U.S. Halts China Space Collaboration (Source: Washington Times)
The Bush administration has suspended plans to develop space ventures with China, including joint exploration of the moon, in reaction to Beijing's Jan. 11 test of an anti-satellite weapon that left orbiting debris threatening U.S. and foreign satellites. NASA spokesman Jason Sharp said the weapon test undermined an agreement reached between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao during an April summit. "We believe China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the constructive relationship that our presidents have outlined, including on civil space cooperation," Mr. Sharp said.

U.S. Seeks Space Dialogue with China (Source: MSNBC)
China’s test of an anti-satellite weapon last month underscores U.S. frustration in efforts to forge reliable communications with the secretive Chinese military, a senior Pentagon official said. On the other side of the debate, China and Russia criticized U.S. space policy and called for Washington to join negotiations over a pact to ban weapons in space. Richard Lawless, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said the missile launch that destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite was a “quite unpleasant development” after years of U.S. efforts to boost dialogue with China’s military leaders. “We simply do not have enough visibility into why they make the decisions they make,” he said.

On Wednesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a possible Republican presidential candidate, and Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala., wrote a letter urging President Bush urging to prepare for a “new era of military competition in space.” “American warfighting capability relies heavily on U.S. space assets and we must take whatever steps necessary to ensure our forces cannot be targeted through an adversarial space strike,” the letter said.

Pad Still Intact After Blast, Says Sea Launch (Source: LA Times)
Dramatic video images captured Sea Launch's oceangoing platform being engulfed in a massive fireball when a rocket being launched from it exploded. But the Long Beach-based company said the damage appeared to be limited. In a preliminary assessment, the platform seemed to have retained its structural integrity after Tuesday's explosion in the Pacific and was operating under its own power. Engineers went aboard the platform Thursday to assess the damage.

"It's amazing," said Sea Launch spokeswoman Paula Korn, who was narrating the launch for the company's webcast when the explosion left her momentarily speechless. "There was some damage to the pad, but the bridge is fine and the light bulbs in the hangar are still on and working." Boeing-led Sea Launch disputed the assessment of an industry analyst who told Bloomberg News that the explosion caused extensive damage and could delay launches 10 months or more. Tuesday's launch was the first of six scheduled this year. "We're still taking inventory, so we just don't know yet," Korn said. "It's too premature to say what kind of delay there might be." A rocket failure in 2000 caused a four-month delay.

Moon Too Static for Astronauts? (Source: Nature)
Lunar colonists could be in for a nasty shock — literally. A team of US scientists has found that the Moon's surface can become charged with up to several thousand volts of static electricity. This charging could release sparks that disable electronic equipment — including monitors, space buggies or even the front door of a Moon base. And it could cause dust clouds that clog up instruments. What's worse, it can be caused by bad weather in space: just when astronauts need their equipment to give them warning and allow them to shelter from the radiation.

NASA Mulls Future Mission To Asteroid Or Comet (Source: Aerospace Daily)
A near-Earth asteroid or comet could be an early target for human explorers under some blue-sky thinking under way at NASA's exploration shops on using a hybrid of planned U.S. launch vehicles for the mission. The agency's Constellation Program at Johnson Space Center launched a study last fall on flying the Orion crew exploration vehicle to a rendezvous with a near-Earth object (NEO) for study and possibly even sample return. A separate effort at Marshall Space Flight Center is studying whether it would be possible to cobble together pieces of the planned Ares I and Ares V launchers for an early lunar-return re-entry test with an unpiloted Orion. Also on the table, strictly as a possibility at this point, is using that so-called Ares IV to send humans to a NEO.