May 2 News Items

SpaceTEC Wins Key Accreditation, and Inclusion in Military Education Programs (Source: SpaceTEC)
SpaceTEC, the national center for aerospace technology training and certification, has received approval from the American Council on Education (ACE) for SpaceTEC's Core Certification Examination for aerospace technicians to be assigned a value of 24 college credits at colleges and universities nationwide. SpaceTEC has also achieved formal recognition and approval by the Veterans’ Administration Montgomery GI Bill for funding of the examination for credentialing of veterans and active duty servicemen and servicewomen, as well as acceptance by the Navy COOL program and the DANTES program for military reservists. The Community College of the Air Force over a year ago also decided to apply college credit for SpaceTEC examinations and coursework toward degree programs at all locations where the institution operates.

Pratt & Whitney Testing Under Way On RL-10 (Source: Aviation Week)
Engineers at Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) in West Palm Beach are dissecting their data after running a specially equipped RL-10 rocket engine at 10 percent of its full 13,000-pound thrust in a series of tests aimed at using the venerable cryogenic engine for the descent stage of NASA's planned lunar lander. Tests last year at the PWR facility in West Palm Beach showed combustion instability at low throttle levels, so a new test series just wrapping up is trying out different mixture ratios of liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) to ease the problem.

XM-Sirius Merger Still On Table (Source: Wall Street Journal)
There's good reason to suspect the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio Holdings is as good as dead. Both companies' licenses specifically forbid them from combining. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and several senators have stated they are skeptical that the public would be well-served by a merger.

Management at each company remains optimistic that the merger will go through. But investors think otherwise, and have marked down both stocks. This looks like an overreaction. Little about their businesses has changed since the merger announcement in mid-February. Yet both stocks are trading below their preannouncement levels.

Sirius Satellite Radio 1Q Loss Narrows (Source: AP)
Sirius Satellite Radio reported a narrower loss for its first quarter compared with the same period a year ago, when it recorded $225 million in expenses for stock paid to Howard Stern. Net loss narrowed to $144.7 million versus $458.5 million in the same period a year ago, slightly better than analysts were expecting. Revenue rose 61 percent to $204 million from $126.7 million, but was below the estimates of $212 million recorded by analysts. Sirius gained 556,490 net subscribers in the first quarter, ending the period with 6.6 million subscribers.

Lawsuit Claims Boeing Failed to Warn About Solar Array Problems (Source: AIA)
A lawsuit filed by Telesat Canada alleges that Boeing withheld information or "recklessly" failed to issue timely warnings about the use of certain defective solar arrays. The solar arrays shortened the useful lives of a handful of satellites, the lawsuit claims. Boeing has denied improperly withholding information and in recent SEC filings calls the claims "meritless."

Lockheed Set to Launch ASTRA 1L Satellite for SES (Source: AIA)
Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems said Tuesday the ASTRA 1L broadcast satellite built for Europe's SES will launch on Thursday. The launch is the first of five launches for SES scheduled for this year.

Wisconsin's Rockets for Schools Has Lasting Effect (Source: Sheboygan Press)
The skies over Horace Mann Middle School will be filled with rockets screaming into the heavens. The middle school's soccer field in Sheboygan will be home to this year's Rockets for Schools elementary school launch, where fourth- and fifth-grade students get a hands-on lesson in science by building and launching model rockets. "They enjoy the fun of it, it's a nice activity," said a program director. "Hopefully, this will get them more involved in science in middle school, high school and beyond." This year, 172 elementary students will launch the rockets they built during workshops on Monday and Tuesday night.

Nelson Calls For 2nd NASA Official To Resign (Source: WKMG)
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said in a letter there is "dysfunctional" oversight of NASA as evidenced by the discovery that the space agency's top lawyer personally destroyed internal records. As a result, Nelson said, NASA's general counsel, Mike Wholley, should resign immediately.