June 21 News Items

Preservation Groups May Seek New Spaceport Site (Source: New Mexico Politics)
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is expected to name El Camino Real National Historic Trail to the list of America’s 11 most endangered places. A well-preserved portion of the trail runs very close to the spot that is to become Spaceport America. The announcement will likely be accompanied by a request that the FAA, in considering a license for the spaceport, analyze whether it should be located further from the trail or at another site altogether. The FAA has to consider environmental impact before issuing a commercial spaceport license, and the preservation groups have been expressing concern about the trail for months.

Florida/NASA Grant Program Funds 17 Projects (Source: FSGC)
The Florida/NASA Matching Grants Program will provide over $469,000 in combined NASA and state funding for 17 projects at six institutions statewide. The winning institutions include Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida State University, SpaceTEC, University of Central Florida, and University of Florida. The grant-funded projects include spaceport and range technology initiatives, space-based research and payload projects, and space education and workforce development projects. The grant program is administered by the NASA-sponsored Florida Space Grant Consortium and Space Florida.

Embry-Riddle and SpaceTEC Win Space Workforce and Education Grants (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's TeachSpace program, and the NSF-sponsored SpaceTEC consortium, are the recipients of two grants to provide rocketry and high-altitude balloon science workshops to Florida teachers. The projects represent a $35,000 investment in aerospace education/workforce development by NASA, Space Florida, and the two institutions.

Embry-Riddle Hosts Summer Minority Engineering Institute for Teachers (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle will host the 31st annual SECME Summer Institute in Daytona on June 23 through July 1. The Summer Institute will bring together more than 200 educators, administrators, parents, and students at the K-12 levels to receive innovative STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professional development. “The program’s theme, a Launch Pad for the Next Generation of Explorers, mirrors the focus on aviation and aerospace that has distinguished Embry-Riddle for more than 80 years,” said an ERAU official.

SECME is a pre-college alliance focused on expanding the participation of minorities in engineering. SECME links engineering universities, school systems, and corporate/government investors. The SECME Summer Institute includes an Aviation and Aerospace Academy, a Parent Mini-Academy, and an Education Stakeholders Forum. Among those attending will be National Student Program Mousetrap Car Competition finalists at the middle-school and high-school levels and their chaperones, as well as a representative of the new class of college-bound SECME/ExxonMobil State and Overall Scholars.

Among many other activities, teachers may attend presentations on Engineering the Future and a mini-TeachSpace workshop conducted by Embry-Riddle professors on the topics of Human Factors in Space Exploration and Rocket Propulsion. Besides Embry-Riddle, the SECME Summer Institute is sponsored by the Exxon/Mobil Foundation, Lockheed Martin, John Deere, and Dupont.

Companies Want More European Support for a Space Champion (Source: EuroNews)
A "Space Alliance" partnership between Thales of France and Italy's Finmeccanica has expanded with the recent purchase of Alcatel's stake in Alenia Space and Telespazio, giving the Franco-Italian joint venture has 40% of the European satellite manufacturing market. The venture's chief executive said more support is needed from European governments over crossborder ties. "The goal of this alliance is to create a European space champion at a time when we feel that there's not enough European money being put into this area compared with what the US is spending on space technology."

India's Space School Struggles to Take Off (Source: DNA)
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is working on a moon mission, is facing a tough challenge on the ground in its endeavour to establish the Indian Institute of Space Science Technology (IIST). ISRO, which has announced the commencement of three courses from the academic year 2007-2008, is yet to find an exclusive faculty and a campus for the IIST. Although ISRO has ambitious plans of setting up an academic township in the scenic hill station of Ponmudi, 50 km from Thiruvananthapuram, the acquisition of land is yet to begin.

SATOP Program Boosts Businesses With NASA Expertise (Source: Florida Today)
Toby McCormick has sold plenty of his nose filters from his store on Merritt Island, while George Woodruff is developing more robotic lifts for the United States military from his shop in Titusville. The two entrepreneurs are among the many small businesses in Brevard County, Florida and around the nation that have developed with help from the Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program, also known as SATOP. The NASA-funded program that started in Brevard County about 12 years ago -- and has since expanded to other states -- provides technical and engineering assistance to businesspeople in need of some expertise to advance their business plans.