News Summaries for February 20

Satellite Radio Merger Announced (Sources: XM & Sirius)
XM Satellite Radio and SIRIUS Satellite Radio have entered into a definitive agreement, under which the companies will be combined in a tax-free, all-stock merger of equals with a combined enterprise value of approximately $13 billion, which includes net debt of approximately $1.6 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, XM shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 4.6 shares of SIRIUS common stock for each share of XM they own. XM and SIRIUS shareholders will each own approximately 50 percent of the combined company.

NASA Looking for Spaceport Landing Zone (Source: Daytona Beach News Journal)
NASA resisted local efforts in the 1960s to borrow its unused KSC land for a wildlife refuge and national seashore. The fledgling space agency relented but worried it might one day need the land for expansion and have a tough time getting it back. Fast forward 40 years. NASA is looking for a place to land one of the proposed COTS space vehicles. So the agency is having "very preliminary" talks with officials from the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Canaveral National Seashore to find a location for a landing and recovery zone.

The area would need to be a cleared circle about 6,000 feet across, said Jim Ball, spaceport development manager. The seashore and refuge includes 167,000 acres between New Smyrna Beach and Titusville, much of that owned by NASA. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service share management responsibilities for the land. Once a few potential sites are chosen, the agency will study the environmental impacts, Ball said. A NASA consultant expects to complete a report in about a month identifying potential sites. An eventual site selection would require identification of alternatives and public meetings to review the options.

The wildlife refuge is in a wait-and-see mode, said Ron Hight, project coordinator for the refuge. Folks at the refuge aren't getting too excited yet, he said. "I've been here 16 years. There have been a lot of projects that could have started and then they go away." Visit http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Enviro/envHEAD04ENV022007.htm to view the article.

NASA Shares its Brightest Ideas (Source: Huntsville Times)
Take a ride in a fishing boat and there's a good chance the engine is made from an aluminum developed at Marshall Space Flight Center. Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. representatives were scanning the Internet one day in 2002 and came across a description of a high-strength aluminum alloy developed by Marshall engineer Jonathan Lee and PoShou Chen, a scientist with Huntsville-based Morgan Research Corp. Bombardier worked with Marshall to develop a longer-lasting engine for its Evinrude ETEC outboard boat motor.

The partnership took about four years and with an investment of about $200,000 created a motorboat engine that can go for three years of normal use without an oil change or tuneup. "This is the benefit of NASA in that it does give back to the public," Dowdy said. "Our chief goal is space exploration, but typically the things we do at NASA are having programs that do lead to innovations," Dowdy said.

Park that space shuttle right here (Source: Huntsville Times)
Could Space Camp be the retirement home for an aging orbiter? NASA is working to retire its space shuttles by 2010, and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is working to get one of them parked here. CEO Larry Capps said Monday that there is already a lot of competition for the three remaining orbiters that have flown missions - Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour. The Smithsonian Institution and the states of Florida, Texas, Ohio and California have already begun lobbying, but Huntsville has something they don't: A space shuttle garage.

In the 1980s, a pre-fab building was designed to be quickly erected over a shuttle to protect it and shield it from prying eyes if it was ever forced to land outside the U.S. while carrying classified cargo. The Orbiter Protective Enclosure was never used, and there is only one in existence. Early last year trucks from Kennedy Space Center in Florida rolled 17 crates containing the building to Huntsville. Capps wants to find a site at the Space Center, pour a foundation and put the OPE together and on permanent display. The estimated cost, including finishing the interior for visitors, is about $5 million.