May 28 News Items

South Korea Aims to Start Planet Exploration From 2017 (Source: Yonhap News)
South Korea will push to explore the moon and planets in the solar system from around 2017 in line with a long-term plan to become a global space power. The Ministry of Science and Technology said the plan calls for spending a total of 3.8 trillion won (US$4.1 billion) in the next 10 years to build satellites and rockets without outside help and train and hire 3,600 specialists in the space technology field. At present the country can design rockets and satellites in cooperation with countries like Israel and Russia.

"Once this stage is completed in 2016, the country should have the basic know-how to start building machines that can explore the moon, planets and other extraterrestrial objects," a Science Ministry official said. South Korea currently is pushing to launch a two-stage KSLV-1 rocket in the near future. The rocket is being built with Russian help. The ministry, however, said that the target dates are subject to change because countries that are ahead in space exploration are reluctant to help South Korea.

India, Brazil Set to Ink Oil, Space Deals (Source: Times of India)
Government officials have been traveling to and from Brazil and India to work out MoUs that could be signed when president Luiz Inaceo Lula da Silva pays a three-day visit to India on June 3. It looks certain that space will be one area where an agreement will be signed. Brazil will likely share space at one of its existing ground facilities for India to set up a satellite tracking module. This will allow for easier course-correction for satellites and boost India's commercial launch capability. The MoU will also envisage India sharing its satellite images to help Brazil track its green cover, particularly in the Amazon which has been causing concern among policymakers. There will also be joint research in atmospherics that help in meteorological predictions which are vital for a rain-fed agricultural country like Brazil.

Pentagon Weighs Options for Quick Space Launches (Source: Defense News)
The Air Force is preparing to purchase next year a block of small rockets for Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) launches, an effort to place satellites in orbit on short notice. The most likely near-term options come from Orbital Sciences and SpaceX. Orbital Sciences launched the first ORS payload — TacSat-2 — in December aboard its Minotaur-1 rocket, and plans to launch the TacSat-3 satellite aboard a Minotaur-1 this December. While the company is not under contract to launch any further ORS payloads on its Minotaurs, it could demonstrate responsive preparations in launches of other military payloads.

The Minotaur rockets include components from decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missiles. While these components are a finite resource, sufficient numbers are available to build hundreds of Minotaurs. Orbital built the two rockets for TacSat-2 and TacSat-3 for a total of $24 million. The company likely could reduce that price somewhat if the Air Force bought a larger block of rockets.

Elon Musk of SpaceX said his company also plans to compete for the block of ORS launches. Musk said his company could reduce its $7 million price tag for the Falcon 1 rocket for a block purchase if the launches came within 12 months of each other, and it could find efficiencies such as increasing its order quantities from suppliers. Musk said Space Exploration plans to increase the price of Falcon 1 launches in 2009 as part of an effort to increase the rocket’s payload. While the price tag will rise to $8.5 million, the cost increase will be proportionately less than the planned increase in payload mass and volume, he said. While the final figures for the upgrade have not yet been determined, Musk said that payload mass and volume capacity will likely increase by 30 percent.

AirLaunch Also Plans for Responsive Launches (Source: Defense News)
AirLaunch LLC is taking a more cautious path than originally planned. It is developing a new satellite launcher that the Pentagon hopes will play a key role in the future. The first demonstration space launch will likely move from 2008 into 2009 as the company gathers additional data on key components for its QuickReach vehicle. AirLaunch in 2004 won a $17.8 million contract from DARPA to refine its QuickReach concept for a flight demonstration in 2008. The QuickReach system uses a rocket that is dropped from an unmodified C-17 or other large cargo aircraft.

The contract covered what DARPA referred to as phase 2B of the Falcon Small Launch Vehicle program, which is a joint effort between DARPA and the U.S. Air Force. That contract ran for one year, but the work under that phase took longer than expected. The company had anticipated signing a contract for phase 2C that would have taken it through the flight demonstration. Instead, phase 2C likely will cover additional testing on the QuickReach propulsion systems, with an additional phase — 2D — covering the flight demonstration. She declined to comment on the exact nature of the work and potential contract value while it is still under negotiation. AirLaunch’s recent accomplishments include a test-fire with its second stage during a demonstration in April.

Microcosm Also Anticipates ORS Business (Source: Defense News)
Other launch concepts that the Pentagon may turn to in the future include the Sprite vehicle, which is being developed by Microcosm. Microcosm was one of the competitors that lost out to AirLaunch in a DARPA Small Launch Vehicle competition in 2004. The Sprite rocket was featured in briefing charts used by Simon “Pete” Worden in 2003 when he was a brigadier general and in charge of transformation efforts at the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. Worden cited the Sprite in briefings for military officials as an example of a potentially key enabling technology for launching small satellites on short notice. Worden currently serves as director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. Microcosm officials believe that they have boosted Sprite's potential payload capacity from about 800 pounds to about 1,050 pounds to low Earth orbit. At the same time, the potential cost of about $4.6 million, including range operations, has not gone up.

NSS Chief: Can NASA and Bush Get It Done? (Source: WIRED)
This weekend's International Space Development Conference, held in Dallas, and produced by the National Space Society, brought together entrepreneurs, NASA staff, astronauts and scientists hash out the big question: how do we get there from here? NSS director George Whitesides talked to Wired News about one of the events, a screening of Alan Chan's indie short film Postcards from the Future, about George Bush's disappearing space initative, New Visions for Space Exploration, and how Rutan, Musk et. al. are becoming the engine of the new push towards space colonization. Visit http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2007/05/nss_chief_can_n.htmlto view the article.

Senate Committee Cuts all Funding for AIRSS (Source: Space News)
The Senate Armed Services Committee cut all funding for the Alternative Infrared Space System (AIRSS) missile warning system in its version of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill and cut $200 million from the president’s request for the Airborne Laser boost-phase missile defense program. The House Armed Services Committee had cut $250 million from the Airborne Laser system.

Stern Vows More Effective Use of NASA Science Budget (Source: Space News)
NASA science chief Alan Stern, is vowing to wring more science out of the agency's tight budget by getting better upfront cost estimates, holding managers more accountable, canceling projects that are not performing, ending missions that have outlived their usefulness, and collaborating more with other space agencies. "We just have to change our attitude around here. The budgets are what they are and we have to get more out of the budget that we have," Stern said since taking the helm of NASA's $5.2 billion science portfolio in April. NASA has been harshly criticized by many scientists since unveiling a five-year budget plan that reneged on an earlier promise to keep the science budget growing at a healthy clip through the end of the decade and beyond. But greater-than-expected human spaceflight costs coupled with less-than-expected budget increases prompted NASA to cut several billion dollars from the long-range science plan.

Presidential Hopeful Richardson Talks with Space Advocates (Source: Space News)
Space professionals got a chance to talk shop with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson at a campaign fundraiser for the Democratic presidential candidate on May 16. According to the accounts of several of the organizers, Richardson told the gathering he sees space as a bona fide area of economic growth and opportunity, citing New Mexico's investment in Spaceport America - which already has landed Virgin Galactic as an anchor tenant - as an example of the type of initiative he would pursue at the national level to spur job growth. About two-thirds of the more than 50 people attending the fundraiser were from the space community. Organizers of the event included Personal Spaceflight Federation President Brett Alexander, consultant Lori Garver, Arianespace Inc. President Clay Mowry, consultant Jim Muncy, Alliant Techsystems Washington representative Erin Neal, and National Space Society Executive Director George Whitesides.

DOD Report Says China Interested in ORS (Source: Space News)
China possesses the ability to jam GPS receivers and "common" satellite communications frequencies and is pursuing a "multi-dimensional" program so it can deny others access to outer space, according to the Pentagon's annual study of Chinese military capabilities and intentions. The study also says that China appears to be pursuing something similar to the U.S. Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) program. China seeks to become a world leader in space development and maintain a leading role in space launch activity. Beijing's goal is to place a satellite into orbit "within hours upon request." Also, the rising Asian power has "established dedicated small satellite design and production facilities" and is developing microsatellites that could be used for "a rapid reconstitution or expansion of China's satellite force in the event of any disruption in coverage."