News Summaries for February 22

Tallahassee Challenger Center Wins State Grant for Space Exhibit (Source: FAMU/FSU)
The Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee received a grant from the Florida Department of State for an exhibition on the history of Florida as a space state. The exhibit will encompass the use of kiosks with computer based interactive multimedia pages including videos, interviews, etc. as well as artifacts from the space program. The purpose of the exhibit is to educate school groups and the general public about the role Florida has played in the history of the space program.

Distant Planets: Warm, Weird, Waterless (Source: AP)
The first "sniffs of air" of two huge far-away planets reveal that they seem to be missing water, a surprising finding amid weather unlike any planets in our solar system with blast furnace-like gusts amid supersonic winds. The absence of water from the atmosphere of both these Jupiter-sized gaseous bodies upsets one of the most basic assumptions of astronomy. One of the researchers, Harvard University astronomy professor David Charbonneau, called the planets "very different beasts ... unlike any other planets in the solar system."

So far, scientists have found 213 planets outside our solar system — they are called exoplanets. But only eight or nine are in the right orbit and location for the type of study reported by three teams using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The closest of the two planets studied, HD 189733b, is 360 trillion miles from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula. The other planet, HD 209458b, is about 900 trillion miles away in the constellation Pegasus and it has a strange cloud of fine silicate particles. "We had expected this tremendous signature of water ... and it wasn't there," said Carl Grillmair of the California Institute of Technology and Spitzer Science Center.

Training Courses Offered for New and Incumbent Aerospace Workers (Source: SpaceTEC)
Aerospace technicians seeking a SpaceTEC certification may register for a March 6 "Core Certification Readiness Course". This course is filling up with workers from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, but a few seats are still available. Meanwhile, the Florida Aerospace Resource Center is sponsoring a 16-hour "Introduction to Composites" workshop in partnership with SpaceTEC and Brevard Community College in March. Call SpaceTEC at 321-730-1020 for information.

NASA Celebrates Space Day at the Texas Capital (Source: NASA)
For more than 40 years, NASA's been in Houston helping Texans get a closer look at the stars. Today, state legislators and the public are getting a chance to find out how at Texas Space Day. NASA employees, contractors and supporters are at the capital all day today with exhibits and information on what Texas is doing for the nation's space program, and what the space program is doing for Texas. "We have a great exhibit in the rotunda," said Eileen Hawley, Director of External Relations for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Jazzing Up Lunar Exploration Plans (Source: Space.com)
“Yes, we’ve been there, but we haven’t done that – and there’s so much yet to do…things that are actually really exciting,” said Brent Sherwood of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We’ve got to start talking about the kinds of things that will get people to support and embrace [a lunar return] rather than either oppose it or be bored by it,” he said. Sherwood said that a lack of clarity about the value of returning to the Moon makes the plan vulnerable to public and political criticism, so much so that NASA’s lunar ambitions could be killed. During a recent conference he outlined a number of scenarios for future lunar activity that could improve the image of the program. Visit http://space.com/news/070222_moon_staif.htmlto view the article.

Atlantis Launch Speaks to Program's Coming Demise and Need for Safety (Source: Florida Today)
The shuttle Atlantis' crew is in town for countdown practice at Kennedy Space Center before their March 15 blastoff on the first shuttle flight this year. Their task will be to continue building the Space Station and pave the way for four other shuttle flights by December, all of which also are geared to station construction. Those missions will bring NASA much closer to the shuttle program's end in 2010 and with it the expected loss of thousands of KSC jobs, as the agency moves toward its new moon-landing program. That's why it's imperative NASA make certain enough dedicted NASA and contractor workers stay on board to maintain strict flight safety as the program winds down.

Ball Aerospace Opens Huntsville Office (Source: Ball Aerospace)
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has opened an office in Huntsville to anchor its pursuit of the Instrument Unit contract for the Ares I launch vehicle, as well as strengthen the company's ongoing NASA and defense programs.

Spacehab Drops STS-107 Lawsuit (Source: Spacehab)
Spacehab has filed for a formal dismissal of all litigation against NASA relating to losses incurred as a result of the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia accident. In January 2004 the Company initiated a formal proceeding against NASA in which the Company was seeking damages in the amount of $87.7 million for the loss of its Research Double Module (RDM) as a result of the Columbia accident.

IG Investigates Science Muzzling at NASA (Sources: Aviation Week, NASA Watch)
Investigators working for NASA's inspector general have confiscated computers and interviewed political appointees in the agency's public affairs shop as a congressionally requested probe into political spinning of government-funded climate-change research results comes to a head. Among those who have had to turn over their laptops to the IG's gumshoes is Dean Acosta, Administrator Michael Griffin's former press secretary, who has since left the agency.

Progress Antenna Problem Solved Via Spacewalk (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
A previously unscheduled spacewalk on the International Space Station (ISS) has been successfully completed, after Mikhail Tyurin and Mike Lopez-Alegria carried out the six hour EVA-17A to cut lose a jammed antenna on the docked Progress M-58 supply ship. Despite problems with Tyurin's spacesuit sublimator - which maintains cooling and regulates humidity - the antenna was cut loose from the handrail it was jammed under, and tied up, allowing the vehicle to vacate the station in April.

Virginia's Space Bill Passes Senate (Source: Space Law Probe)
Virginia's pioneering, pro-space legislation, the Spaceflight Immunity and Liability Act (HB 3184) was passed unanimously, by the state's senate. Thus, the nation's first state law covering immunity from tort liability for commercial space launch operators and authorizing assumption of risk waivers for suborbital spaceflight participants has unanimously zoomed through both houses of the Virginia legislature. Next the measure goes back to the House to accept the minor amendments --the Committee made two technical changes for specific state code references and added a sunset clause -- July 1, 2012. The bill would then go to Governor Tim Kaine for his consideration.