April 16 News Items

Space Adventures Hopes to Announce Cislunar Customers in 2007 (Source: Spaceports blog)
The space tourism firm Space Adventures is hoping to announce the first round-the-moon [cislunar] $100-million flight before year end 2007 to take place in 2011. Meanwhile, the space firm is developing two commercial spaceports in the Middle East and Asia where it is planning suborbital launches of space tourists above 63.5-miles altitude or the edge of space for 5-minutes of weightlessness.

Lockheed Wrestles with Orion Issues (Source: Flight International)
Weight constraints imposed by the Ares I crew launch vehicle, meeting safety and performance targets without significant cost growth, together with "the sheer integration of the job", are the major challenges Orion crew exploration vehicle prime contractor Lockheed Martin is wrestling with in developing NASA's first manned vehicle in 35 years. Lockheed Martin's John Karas says launch-vehicle performance is a major constraint on Orion weight growth. "The Ares I can only move so much. You've got to fit with that. It's about managing the [performance] requirements." He says the launch abort system also has a great bearing on Orion crew and service module mass. The final trade-off studies under way focus on meeting crew safety and vehicle performance targets, without incurring significant cost growth.

Americans See Space Program as Expendable (Source: Angus Reid Global Monitor)
Many adults in the United States think space exploration should be trimmed down in the event the federal government needs to reduce spending, according to a poll by Harris Interactive. 51 percent of respondents mention space as one of two programs that the cuts should come from. Welfare and defense are next on the list with 28 percent, followed by farm subsidies with 24 percent, environmental programs with 16 percent, homeland security with 12 percent, and transportation with 11 percent.

Russia-Brazil: A Space Partnership (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia and Brazil have always seen eye-to-eye on such issues as the importance of a multipolar world and the UN's role in modern society, and this mutual understanding is a key factor in relations between the two countries in other areas, too. Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that "we can cooperate in many fields, and one of them is high technologies, above all the peaceful uses of outer space." When, in August 2003, a Brazilian VLS-1 rocket exploded on its launch pad, Russia was the first to send a team of experts to investigate. Their findings proved very helpful in pinpointing the causes of the blast and planning measures to help prevent a repeat.

Russia has signed an intergovernmental agreement with Brazil on space cooperation. The agreement includes the observance of the non-proliferation regime and covers all aspects of the transfer of intellectual property and rocket technology. Cooperation with such a leading space power as Russia lends credibility to Brazil's rocket and space efforts in the eyes of the international community.

Atlas-V Use Increasingly Considered for Commercial Missions (Source: Spaceports blog)
Utilization of the Atlas-V booster for space tourism and other commercial activity has been under intensive study the past year or so because of the level of reliability of the booster over a lengthy period of time. The capacity of existing commercial spaceports to provide launch infrastructure to the Atlas-V booster is a limited, however. Today Canaveral and Vandenberg are the launch options for the booster requiring commercial firms to compete with the launch traffic posed by the civil and military launch and range needs.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia's Wallops Island (on the Virginia-Maryland stateline) is undertaking studies to be released in the fall of how it may more effectively be involved in the commercial space launch business to the ISS in the next decade. Whether or not the fledgling commercial suborbital and orbital spaceport could muster the financial withwithal to achieve heavy-lift infrastructure investment for COTS is yet to be seen without a significant federal role.

SpaceTEC Partners to Meet in Seattle (Source: ERAU)
College and university partners in the National Science Foundation-sponsored SpaceTEC program will meet in Seattle on May 7-10 to discuss progress and plans for the aerospace technology training/certification program. Officials from Brevard Community College provide leadership for the national effort. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is a partner and will attend the Seattle meeting along with colleges from eight states.

Huntsville Chamber Supports Space, Defense in DC (Source: Huntsville Times)
A group of nearly 200 people representing the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce met last week with NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. Griffin was the first speaker for the chamber's Washington, D.C., trip, an annual event that allows local business leaders to meet with political leaders and government officials. According to Mike Ward, the chamber's vice president of governmental affairs, this is the largest number of people to make the trip. "I can't stress enough how significant it is to have this many people to go on this trip" said Ward. In addition to meeting with Griffin there were panel discussions on BRAC and workforce development. There also was a session with a representative from the Department of Homeland Security.