March 12 News Items

Arianespace Launches British Skynet Satellite (Source: BBC)
The British military's Skynet 5 satellite has been launched into space from Kourou in French Guiana. The spacecraft is part of a £3.2bn system that will deliver secure, high-bandwidth communications for UK and allied forces. Sunday's lift-off came 24 hours after a first attempt was thwarted by a technical glitch in ground equipment. Skynet rode atop an Ariane 5-ECA rocket.

Putin: Glonass Should Be Cheaper, Better Than GPS (Source: RIA Novosti)
The global navigation system Glonass should be cheaper and of better quality than the GPS system, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Glonass is a Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), which is designed for both military and civilian use, and allows users to identify their positions in real time. The system can also be used in geological prospecting. The head of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, said that Russia is also in talks with the United States and the European Space Agency to prepare agreements on the use of Glonass jointly with the GPS and Galileo satellite navigation systems. Ivanov said late last year that Russia will lift all precision restrictions on Glonass beginning in 2007, which will enable accurate and unlimited commercial use of the military-controlled global positioning system. Current restrictions limit the accuracy for civilian users of Glonass.

Lockheed Tops List of Pentagon Contractors (Source: AIA)
Lockheed Martin remained the top DOD contractor in 2006 with contracts worth $26.6 billion. Boeing ranked second with contracts worth $20.3. billion. Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively.

South Florida Sending Big Delegation to Paris Air Show (Source: AIA)
Hoping to enlarge its already strong presence in the aviation industry, South Florida plans to send a large delegation to the Paris Air Show in June. Experts note the state ranks first in the U.S. for aircraft maintenance, overhauls and repairs.

Florida Aerospace Summit Planned on March 19 (Source: FAAA)
The Florida Aviation Aerospace Alliance (FAAA), Embry-Riddle, and Florida Tech will sponsor a summit on Florida's aerospace industry at the Daytona Beach International Airport on March 19 from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Contact Bennett Napier at mailto:Bennett@executiveoffice.org for information.

Space Florida President Featured at Space Club Luncheon on March 13 (Source: NSC)
The National Space Club, Florida Committee, will host Steve Kohler for a luncheon presentation on March 13 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Cocoa Beach. Kohler is the new president of Space Florida and will discuss the agency's plans for space industry expansion and diversification. Contact LaDonna Netterer at mailto:ladonna.j.neterer@boeing.com for information.

Florida Aerospace Resource Center to Meet on March 29 (Source: ARC)
The Florida Aerospace Resource Center, one of the state's targeted-industry "banner centers", will meet on March 29 in Vero Beach at the Piper Aircraft facility. Contact mailto:mkozak@fccj.edu for information.

China Plans Astronomy Satellite (Source: AP)
China's burgeoning space program has announced plans to launch its first astronomy satellite and participate in joint projects with Russia and France. The satellite to be launched in 2010 will carry a "hard X-ray modulation telescope" being developed by Chinese scientists for the study of black holes and other space phenomena, according to a government Space Science Development Plan released over the weekend. China also will take part in Russia's project to send an unmanned probe to Mars' moon, Phobos, to collect soil samples. Russia has scheduled the probe's launch for 2009. China and France will cooperate in sending a probe called the Small Explorer for Solar Eruptions to observe solar activity during the next solar maximum in about 2011, when the sun's activity is expected to reach its cyclical peak.

Ariane 5 Rocket Puts British, Indian Satellites Into Orbit (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off Sunday and put into orbit a military satellite for Britain and a television satellite for India. The rocket, the 31st launch of an Ariane 5 and the first this year, lifted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana. Technical problems with the launchpad had forced Arianespace to delay the launch from Saturday.

NM County Considers Putting Qualifications on Spaceport Tax (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
County commissioners will consider limitations on a proposed sales tax to help fund the planned spaceport near Upham. The resolution, which will be considered Tuesday, will create a sunset clause for the tax to expire in 20 years, and will also permit the county to revoke the tax if certain development goals are not met. The proposed one-quarter of 1 percent sales tax, which would lead to an extra 25-cent charge on a $100 purchase, is already up for a vote. On March 31 polls will be open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The general election will be held April 3. The resolution up for debate Tuesday aims to quell some public fears about the proposed spaceport, commissioner Kent Evans said. It would limit the cost of the project, a portion of which would be funded by the county-wide tax, to $225 million. It would also demand the state receive a Federal Aviation Administration license for launches, require that Virgin Galactic sign a lease to occupy the spaceport.

Meager Budget Hamstringing NASA Science (Source: Florida Today)
Tight budgets are preventing NASA's human exploration program and its science missions from succeeding, a leading scientist told a congressional panel Friday. Science mission launches are scheduled to decline to fewer than two per year by 2010 from a high of seven per year in the 1990s, according to Lennard Fisk, chairman of the National Research Council Space Studies Board and a former NASA associate administrator of space sciences. And NASA's new program to send astronauts back to the moon is underfunded and behind schedule, Fisk told members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies. "We need to decide if we really are truly committed to resuming the commitment (to space exploration)," he said.

OrbView 3 Satellite Malfunctions (Source: SpaceToday.net)
The commercial remote sensing satellite OrbView 3 has not been able to create usable imagery for several days, GeoEye announced this week. In a regulatory filing with the SEC dated March 8, GeoEye officials said that the OrbView 3 satellite is suffering from problems with the electronics on its camera that have prevented it from taking usable imagery since March 4. The filing said there was not yet enough information to determine what, if anything, can be done to restore the instrument, nor how long the process will take. GeoEye, created last year when ORBIMAGE merged with Space Imaging, said it will use its Ikonos satellite to satisfy customer imaging needs while the investigation into OrbView 3 continues. The spacecraft, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation with a camera provided by Northrop Grumman, was launched in 2003 and was designed to last at least five years. A new spacecraft, GeoEye 1, is scheduled for launch later this year; it will be capable of taking higher-resolution images than either OrbView 3 or Ikonos.

Kyl Calls For Bigger Space Budgets (Source: Aerospace Daily)
In the wake of China's test of a prototype anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in January, Sen. Jon Kyl is calling for increases to the Defense Department's budgets for space situational awareness and responsive space systems. "Without [situational awareness], we can't plan or execute defensive or offensive counterspace missions," he said.

Delta Pad Damage Assessed After Fuel Leak (Source: Aviation Week)
The Air Force, Boeing and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) are assessing the schedule and hardware implications of potentially significant damage at Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 37, and perhaps even the Delta IV Heavy rocket on that launch pad, following a dangerous liquid oxygen leak that occurred during a countdown dress rehearsal with the massive vehicle loaded with tons of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. The Feb. 28 leak could have caused the explosion of the vehicle on the pad, and in this case it damaged the "launch table" steel structure that physically supports the rocket. The incident already has delayed the planned launch of the final $250 million U.S. Air Force/Northrop-Grumman Defense Support Program (DSP) missile warning satellite that had been planned for April 1.

U.S. Industry Frustrated by Lack of Transparency on Galileo (Source: Space News)
U.S. industry officials are concerned that the technical documentation for Europe’s Galileo navigation system is not being shared openly, a concern that Galileo managers say is unfounded. The United States and the European Union in 2004 agreed to make their respective satellite navigation systems, GPS and Galileo, interoperable so that user equipment can be made inexpensively to benefit from both satellite constellations.

ITAR Hampers Cooperation on Galileo, GPS 3 (Source: Space News)
Trans-Atlantic industrial cooperation on the future satellite navigation systems being built in both Europe and the United States has been put in the deep freeze because of U.S. technology-transfer restrictions and continued upheaval in the design and development of Europe’s system, U.S. industry officials said. For the moment, they said, teams led by Boeing and Lockheed Martin are preparing for an expected request for proposals from the U.S. Air Force for the next-generation GPS system, called GPS 3, without including any significant European industry participation in their bids.

U.S. Hopeful New UN Panel Will Prevent Interference with GPS (Source: Space News)
U.S. officials hope a new United Nations-affiliated body to coordinate existing and planned satellite navigation systems by the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan and India will rein in any single nation’s temptation to erect a system that poses problems for others. The International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG), created in November, has scheduled a first formal meeting in September in India and may provide the first detailed exchange of views on how China’s Compass/Beidou system intends to operate, officials said.

Europe Faces More Government Financing for Galileo Program (Source: Space News)
Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation project is in a state of near-paralysis because of a series of interconnected problems afflicting its industrial team, financing structure and political support, according to European industry and government officials. The dysfunctions will almost certainly lead to further delays in deployment of the planned satellite constellation and substantial new costs, these officials said. For the first time since Galileo was decided on nearly a decade ago, serious thought is being given to abandoning much of its commercial, privately financed approach in favor of a straightforward government procurement of the 30-satellite constellation.

Glonass System to Have 16--18 Satellites by 2008 (Source: Space News)
Russia’s Glonass satellite navigation system, which degraded from neglect in the 1990s but recently has won fresh financial support from the Russian government, currently has 10 operational satellites and three new spacecraft that are in their final in-orbit checkout phase. Two Proton rockets, each carrying three Glonass spacecraft, are scheduled to launch this year. After taking into account satellites expected to be retired by then, the Glonass constellation should total 16-18 fully operational satellites by January.