March 29 News Items

ZERO-G and Sharper Image to Sell Weightless Flights (Source: ZERO-G)
ZERO-G announced that the Sharper Image Corp.) will exclusively market and sell seats on ZERO-G's public flights. Reservations for seats will be made available through Sharper Image's 187 specialty-retail stores, their monthly catalog and http://www.sharperimage.combeginning May 15.

Space, Labor Leaders Differ on KSC Future (Source: Florida Today)
Space industry managers and labor leaders gave starkly contrasting views of KSC's future during a Senate hearing Wednesday. The impact of a four- or five-year absence of manned launches from Cape Canaveral could be devastating, said Johnny Walker, a representative of more than 2,500 union members employed at the space center and a member of the Space Florida board. Walker's anxiety contrasted with assurances offered by William Gerstenmaier, a top NASA manager, that the space agency has an orderly transition planned for the end of the shuttle era in 2010. "We have as good a plan as we can at this point," said Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations. The subcommittee's chairman, Sen. Bill Nelson again expressed concern about the gap between retirement of the shuttles and the first operational launch of the Orion crew capsule, now expected in 2015.

Space X Declares Falcon 1 Testing Complete, Ready for Commercial Service (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Having had several days to examine the data, the second test launch of Falcon 1 is looking increasingly positive. Post flight review of telemetry has verified that oscillation of the second stage late in the mission is the only thing that stopped Falcon 1 from reaching full orbital velocity. The second stage was otherwise functioning well and even deployed the satellite mass simulator ring at the end of flight. Final velocity was 11,000 mph, whereas 17,000 mph is needed for orbit. Altitude was confirmed to be 180 miles.

This confirms the end of the test phase for Falcon 1 and the beginning of the operational phase. The next Falcon 1 flight will carry the TacSat 1 satellite for the US Navy, with a launch window that begins in September, followed by Razaksat for the Malaysian Space Agency in November. Beyond that, we have another nine missions on manifest for F1 and F9. Note, the first F9 mission will also be a test flight and the three NASA F9/Dragon missions are all test flights for Dragon.

KSC Takes On Tank Foam Work (Source: Florida Today)
A crew of about 100 people at Kennedy Space Center are scrambling to get in place everything they need for the unprecedented repair work on a hail-battered space shuttle external tank. The tank's foam appears to have been riddled with hail hits in a very concentrated area. At the very top of the tank, workers have sanded off about a half-inch of the three or so inches of foam insulation in that area. They've been smoothing the area for a never-before-tried-at-KSC foam spray. That work, typically done by robots at the factory to ensure perfection, will be done by humans toting spray guns on platforms suspended from above.

Just below that, hundreds of white spots on the tank will be filled with a liquid form of the foam using a syringe. Molds and sanding tools will be used to smooth the surface once the repair foam expands and hardens in place. The repair areas are being marked and prepared now and some initial setup work has been done for the first repairs. The dings are the size of nickels and quarters, but in the worst places there are dozens of them within an inch or so of one another. NASA is hurrying ahead in hopes that repairs to the tank might allow a launch in the final days of a launch window that ends May 23. But officials repeated today that they might not make it.

Spaceport Tax Vote Nears Amid Conflicting Opinions (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
When British entrepreneur Richard Branson visited the proposed site of Spaceport America in December 2005, he spoke of great things to come. With a referendum on the ballot Tuesday for a proposed gross receipts tax increase to pay for part of the estimated $198 million project, many in Doña Ana County are questioning what the project will involve and why they should foot even part of the bill. "Why are we as citizens funding a private company?" said Veronica Sowell, a Las Cruces resident and small business owner, who feels the spaceport is a viable business, just not at the expense of taxpayers.

Space Junk Falls Around Airliner (Source: Breitbart)
Flaming space junk from a Russian satellite narrowly missed hitting a Chilean airliner over the Pacific Ocean, reports said Wednesday. The pilot of a LAN Chile Airbus A340 en route to New Zealand told air traffic controllers he had seen pieces of flaming space junk falling about eight kilometres (four miles) in front of the plane and behind it. The aircraft was not struck by any of the debris and later landed safely in Auckland. Airways New Zealand, which manages New Zealand's air traffic, said it had been warned by Russian authorities that an obsolete satellite was due to fall into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday. But the debris had apparently fallen into the area 12 hours earlier than the time advised by the Russians.

New Mexico, Virgin Deal Would Not Preclude Space Tourism Launches From Florida (Source: Florida Today)
New Mexico took another step forward in the race to become the nation's first space tourist launch base. The state government signed a 37-page agreement Monday with British entrepreneur Richard Branson, setting the terms of a 20-year, $27.5 million lease that would allow Branson's Virgin Galactic to launch tourists to space from the desert. The agreement is not legally binding, but state Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans said he expects a lease based on the agreement to be signed within three months.

Branson has expressed interest in launching from Florida, too, and a deal with New Mexico would not preclude Virgin Galactic launches from the Space Coast. Steve Kohler, head of Space Florida, said the state is aggressively pursuing Virgin Galactic and other space tourism companies as a way to offset job losses in the space industry when NASA retires its shuttle fleet in 2010.

Dnepr Rocket to be Launched April 17 (Source: RIA Novosti)
The launch of a Dnepr rocket, grounded since a crash last summer, has been postponed until April 17 for technical reasons, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency said. Igor Panarin said that the launch, which was to have occurred from the Baikonur spaceport Tuesday morning, was put-off for several weeks due to problems with the rocket booster. The rocket, which will place into orbit an Egyptian satellite and six Saudi Arabian satellites, as well as six university CubeSat satellites, has been grounded since a crash July 26, 2006 shortly after liftoff in Kazakhstan. The rocket is a civilian version of the heavy R-36M2 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile.

Progress Spacecraft Stuffed with Space Station Garbage Dropped into Pacific (Source: Itar-Tass)
A Progress cargo spacecraft has ended its five-month long flight at a “spacecraft junkyard” in the Pacific Ocean. The Progress M-58 cargo spacecraft and garbage fragments from the International Space Station were dumped in the designated area of the Pacific Ocean at a depth of four kilometers. “This area is away from shipping routes,” the source said. “The existing practice of disposing of space garbage in this way causes no harm to ecology. During reentry most of the wastes burn down together with the capsule. Only casual fragments reach the ocean’s surface.”

China Details Mars Exploration with Russia (Source: Reuters)
China and Russia will mount a joint effort to explore Mars and one of its moons in 2009, Chinese state media reported following an agreement to boost cooperation between the two ambitious space powers. A Russian rocket will lift a Chinese satellite and Russian exploration vehicle to survey Mars and Phobos, the innermost and biggest of the red planet's moons. "It indicates the two sides have taken a key step forward to working on a large space program," said an official. The small Chinese satellite will explore Mars while the Russian craft will land on Phobos to explore the environment and scoop up soil samples.

U.S. Missile Defense Chief Argues for Missile Shield in Space (Source: RIA Novosti)
A senior U.S. official in charge of America's missile defense program told a congressional committee Tuesday that some elements should be deployed in space, including a "space-based layer" in near-Earth orbit. Addressing the Armed Services Committee, Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering III, director of the U.S. missile defense program, sought to justify the need for substantial spending on the program in 2008 by saying it would increase the effectiveness of the missile shield in view of gathering threats and the proliferation of ballistic missiles worldwide.

U.S. plans to deploy elements of the missile shield in Central Europe are expected to cost $1.6 billion over the next five years. The program will later be expanded to include sea-based missiles and missile tracking systems in space. Washington has cited possible threats from Iran or North Korea as a reason for its missile defense program. Obering's report to the committee said that about 100 foreign ballistic missiles had been launched in 2006 around the world, and that missile tests had doubled in number in 2007.

Defense Officials Raise ASAT Concerns (Source: Aviation Week)
Political and diplomatic fallout continues from China's Jan. 11 anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test, with top U.S. defense officials speaking out on the subject in Washington and Beijing. "Platforms costing billions of dollars to replace and the lives of astronauts from many nations are now at risk from debris left by China's recent ill-advised anti-satellite test," U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee in mid March.

Similar concerns were raised in Beijing by Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. In a visit to China to broaden U.S./Chinese ties, Pace told Chinese military officials that they are raising concerns by testing the ASAT and then boosting military spending by nearly 18 percent, to about $45 billion annually.

Seven Missions Slip - Hubble Moves Up, Begins Major Planning (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
STS-125 - the final Hubble serving mission - has unexpectedly moved up NASA's shuttle schedule, in the biggest schedule shake-up in years, involving seven missions slipping and the swapping of orbiters on three missions. The move of STS-125 to earlier next summer - and now only seven missions away - was also accompanied by the opening salvo of major planning documentation for the flagship mission, which remains as Atlantis' swansong.