April 29 News Items

Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Food, Water Supply (Source: ABC News)
A study from the Centers for Disease Control last year tested almost 3,000 people who are representative of the U.S. population. They found perchlorate in every single person," said Dr. Anila Jacob of the Environmental Working Group. So how did something used to launch rockets find its way into our homes? A government report revealed that at sites in more than 25 states, perchlorate had leaked into the drinking water and soil. About 65 percent of that contamination was attributed to the Department of Defense and to NASA.

Ashes of NASA's Cooper and Star Trek's Scotty Fly to Space (Source: AP)
The cremated remains of actor James Doohan, who portrayed engineer "Scotty" on "Star Trek," and of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper soared into suborbital space Saturday aboard a rocket. It was the first successful launch from Spaceport America, a commercial spaceport being developed in the southern New Mexico desert. "Go baby, go baby," said Eric Knight of the commercial launch company, UP Aerospace Inc. of Farmington, Conn. Since it was a suborbital flight, the rocket soon parachuted back to Earth, coming down at the White Sands Missile Range. "We nailed it. We stuck the landing," said Knight.

Europe Considering All-Public Galileo Financing (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Discouraged by continued delays in negotiating a public-private partnership, European officials are considering going ahead with the development of its Galileo satellite navigation system using entirely public funding. Galileo was originally planned to be financed by a mix of public money and private investment, with the company running the satellite system recouping its investment through service fees. However, negotiations between the EU and Galileo Industries regarding the partnership agreement have stalled. Galileo's constellation of 30 satellites was once planned to be in orbit by late this decade, but will likely not be completely deployed until the early 2010s.

Russia's GLONASS Satellite Navigation System Runs Into Problems (Source: RIA Novosti)
The Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) is a radio-based satellite navigation system developed by the Soviet Union and now operated for the Russian government by the national Space Force. Unfortunately, the GLONASS project faces major problems. The Russian mission control center said only 12 out of the 19 GLONASS satellites now in orbit are currently operating. Four more satellites now orbiting the Earth may be commissioned in the future, enlarging the GLONASS cluster to 16 spacecraft. However, only seven of these are revamped Uragan-M satellites, whereas the rest are obsolete spacecraft, whose service life has either expired or will expire soon. Quite possibly, all old spacecraft may stop functioning by late 2008. In this case Russia will have to launch 17 new satellites by the end of 2009. And working out the required launch schedule would be a mind-boggling task.

Boeing Considering Commercial Delta 4 Apart from ULA (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Boeing is considering returning the Delta 4 launch vehicle to the commercial market to help make up for weak government launch schedules. While government Delta 4 launches are now run by the United Launch Alliance, commercial launches of the Delta 4 would be managed by Boeing Launch Services. Boeing withdrew the Delta 4 from the commercial market in mid-2003, citing weak launch demand. A company official said at a 2005 conference that Boeing was planning to return the Delta 4 to the commercial market that year, but the company quickly backed away from those claims.

Griffin Defends Tapes' Demise (Source: Florida Today)
Congressional investigators questioned NASA's top attorney behind closed doors Friday about his role in destroying copies of a recorded meeting between the NASA administrator and the agency's watchdog office. The recordings were of an April 10 meeting called to discuss an integrity report. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin did not want the gathering recorded because he wanted employees to feel free to talk. When it was learned that the gathering had been recorded anyway, tapes were sent to NASA General Counsel Michael Wholley's office for his guidance. "The determination was made that this was not an official NASA record, so copies were disposed of," said a NASA spokesman.