June 8 News Items

Astronaut Will be FAU's First Grad to Fly on Shuttle (Source: Palm Beach Post)
Florida Atlantic University is hitching a ride into space today, courtesy of a 1986 graduate who is the first alumnus to man a shuttle mission. Fightin' Owl Steven Swanson, who earned a master's degree in computer science from the Boca Raton school, will carry an FAU flag with him on his 11-day mission to attach solar arrays to the international space station. It's the maiden space voyage for both Swanson and FAU. "It shows the quality of our program and the things you can achieve through an education at FAU," said and FAU official.

French Say 'Non' to U.S. Disclosure of Secret Satellites (Source: SpaceRef.com)
A French space-surveillance radar has detected 20-30 satellites in low Earth orbit that do not figure in the U.S. Defense Department's published catalogue, a discovery that French officials say they will use to pressure U.S. authorities to stop publishing the whereabouts of French reconnaissance and military communications satellites.

Delta 2 Launches Italian Satellite From California Spaceport (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Delta 2 rocket placed an Italian remote sensing satellite into low Earth orbit Thursday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space Italia, is the first of four planned under a joint project by the Italian defense ministry and space agency that will provide radar imagery of the Earth's surface. The second COSMO-SkyMed satellite is scheduled for launch late this year or early next year, also on a Delta 2. The launch was a commercial mission by Boeing Launch Services under a contract with United Launch Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that produces the Delta and Atlas launch vehicles.

Russia Launches Military Satellite (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Soyuz rocket launched an unidentified Russian military satellite Thursday. The Soyuz-U rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia. No information about the spacecraft was given other than it is "in the interests of the Russian Defence Ministry". The launch is the first this year from Plesetsk.

EU Ministers Agree on More Public Funds for Galileo (Source: Reuters)
European ministers conceded on Friday that a search for private-sector funding for the Galileo satellite navigation system had failed and that they would have to cough up additional cash from public coffers. But they fell short of agreeing whether the money to plug the $3.22 billion shortfall should come from individual European Union states rather than the EU's collective budget.

NASA Aiming To Quiet Critics Of Aging Shuttles (Source: Tampa Tribune)
Can they pull it off? That's the question buzzing around the space community as the clock ticks down on the remaining days of the shuttle fleet and its looming workload. With only three craft and three years left to complete the International Space Station, NASA's most ambitious project ever, experts say successful missions are now hypercritical. NASA hoped to have at least two shuttle missions under its belt at this point in the year, but launchpads have been silent since December. A hailstorm in February damaged insulation on Atlantis' fuel tank, postponing March's liftoff until now.

NASA Inspector General Refuses to Resign Despite Bipartisan Call (Source: Congressional Quarterly)
In his first appearance before Congress Thursday, NASA Inspector General Robert W. Cobb was told by lawmakers from both chambers to resign, but he said he would not. Lawmakers have called for his resignation before, but this was the first time they did so in person. Members of a joint House-Senate committee spent several hours grilling Cobb, who, according to an oversight panel, tried to silence whistleblowers at NASA and regularly subjected his staff to verbal beratement.

But Cobb said the investigation is largely baseless, since the allegations it investigated are false. He also questioned whether the agency has the authority to make such a judgment. “If the findings of the integrity committee are falsely based, then I don’t see any problem with continuing to serve under those circumstances,” Cobb said. He also suggested that he is staying as a way to fight back against unfair treatment by the government. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said that under Cobb’s leadership, the inspector general’s office has “become dysfunctional. Fear and mistrust permeate the office. More than half of the experienced professionals in the office have left since Mr. Cobb’s arrival.”

Argos: Keeping Track of the Planet (Source: BBC)
For the past two months a Danish-Greenlandic team has been tracking walruses as they migrate from Greenland. Transmitters attached to the walruses have been beaming up information to a satellite system called Argos, which has allowed the researchers to follow the tusked beasts' progress from the comfort of their offices. But this project is just one of a vast array of scientific studies that has taken advantage of Argos since it was set up nearly 30 years ago. "It is a pioneer satellite system," said Christian Ortega who is in charge of Argos science applications. Visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6701221.stm to view the article.