April 25 News Items

Alabama Congressman Worries NASA Work at Risk (Source: Huntsville Times)
Lack of money could put NASA's future moon missions and Marshall Space Flight Center rocket development on the chopping block. Alabama Congressman Robert Aderholt is asking members of Congress to restore money to the NASA budget or risk delaying key work aimed at returning astronauts to the moon. Aderholt said he is concerned if the programs are behind schedule then money will not be made available in the future for catch-up work - a position that could threaten long-term programs. Aderholt is pushing for an extra $500 million in the fiscal 2008 budget to keep lunar exploration missions on track. The budget shortfalls caused senior NASA managers to consider shutting down a 32-member Marshall lunar robotics office.

The office has been the source of a continuing argument between Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, who wants it to stay open and at Marshall, and NASA Administrator Mike Griffin. "This situation is a disaster," said George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society in Washington, D.C. "Griffin has been forced to cut a whole range of very valuable efforts. It's not the NASA administrator's fault. Griffin is just working with what he has been given." Whitesides and other space experts fear that lack of money will mean future lunar exploration missions will take place over a few years, and not create a transportation network of rockets and bases that would allow continued trips to the moon.

Group Pushes Reno Space Education Center (Source: Reno Gazette-Journal)
Reno is poised to enter the space age, complete with missions to Mars and an orbiting space station. All it will take is $1.5 million to build the only Challenger Learning Center in Nevada, and a local group already has planned its first fundraiser to launch the effort. The center would house simulations of NASA's Mission Control in Houston and of the International Space Station used to teach students about math, science and other skills.

Northrop Grumman Profit Rises (Source: Reuters)
Northrop Grumman's first-quarter profit rose less than expected, as higher sales of its military equipment was offset slightly by the costs of a strike at one of its shipyards. The No. 3 U.S. defense contractor, which makes warships, nuclear submarines, unmanned surveillance planes and a range of military electronics, kept its full-year earnings forecast unchanged. Northrop, the third-largest Pentagon contractor behind Lockheed Martin and Boeing, reported quarterly net profit of $387 million, compared with $358 million in the year-ago quarter.

Arianespace and Japan Strengthening Relationship (Source: Arianespace)
Japan continues its role as a key partner for Arianespace - with a growing number of new Japanese commercial payloads to be orbited and launch services cooperation being developed. To date, 23 out of Japan's 32 commercial launch contracts have been entrusted to Arianespace. In the next 12 months, Arianespace will launch three payloads for Japanese satellite operators: BSAT-3A for B-SAT Corporation, Horizons-2 for JSAT Corporation, and Superbird-7 for Space Communications corporation. Arianespace announced an agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to combine their satellite launch offerings for Ariane 5 and Japan's H-IIA to better serve customers worldwide. As a result, Arianespace and MHI will be able to jointly propose launch services with the flexibility of orbiting a customer's satellite on either of these two vehicles.