News Summaries for February 9

Northrop Grumman Develops GPS Range Tracking System (Source: Northrop Grumman)
A newly certified GPS range tracking system, developed for the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) by Northrop Grumman, was successfully flown at Vandenberg Air Force Base for the first time this week as one of the two independent tracking systems required for range safety. "This new system will greatly improve capabilities for range users through more precise tracking, fewer range delays caused by radar downtime and significantly reduced launch support costs,'' said a Northrop Grumman official.

Bigelow's Inclination Choice Favors Wallops Island Launch Pad (Source: MARS blog)
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) may be positioned to serve as a launch site provider for commercial space launch firms to reach the first privately owned space station in the next decade if reports on the orbital inclination requirements are correct. Bigelow Aerospace has plans to begin launching components of its station before 2010. Bigelow hopes to reach up to 16-launches per year creating an "international astronaut corps" and create a low-cost, visitor-friendly destination for tourism and microgravity research. This plan should have a positive price impact on commercial space access in the years ahead.

The ~250 nautical mile orbit at a ~40 degree choice of orbital inclination for the Bigelow Aerospace space station may enable human-rated private crew launch opportunities from Wallops Island every day. "If SpaceX can get Falcon I flying reliably, and get Falcon IX built, they might be better off launching out of Wallops than Cape Canaveral. At Wallops they'd be one of the major players instead of being the poor stepchild. At Wallops they wouldn't be anywhere near as remote from civilization (and replacement parts or LOX shipments) as they are at Kwajelein. They could still launch into [Bigelow's] orbit, as well possibly as some polar orbits. This might eliminate entirely the need to launch from Vandenburg or Canaveral, and could end up saving them a lot of time, money, and hassle."

NASA Tries to Make Space for Science, Science (Source: Science)
"It is clear, however, that NASA's science program remains in crisis after having to pony up $2.44 billion from its 2007-2011 budget plan to cover shuttle and space station shortfalls. No spacecraft are slated to follow the large Earth-observing platforms now in orbit, and the earth sciences budget will remain at about $1.5 billion for the foreseeable future. Several important astrophysics flights, such as the Space Interferometry Mission, remain on hold because of budget constraints."

Cost Overruns, Cancelling of Small Missions Have Led to Lost Science Opportunities at NASA (Source: NRC)
NASA's astrophysics program has achieved the agency's highest priority goals by focusing on large missions such as the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes but in doing so, it has squeezed out smaller missions that could be laying the foundation for future scientific discovery, says a new report from the National Research Council.