July 20 News Items

Brazil Fires Rocket in Bid to Revive Space Program (Source: Reuters)
Brazil launched a sounding rocket carrying scientific experiments on Thursday in an effort to revive a space program that was set back by a deadly accident in 2003. Brazil's main objective is to develop and then sell satellite-launching rockets, as well as to promote its Alcantara spaceport near the equator. The VSB-30 sounding rocket was airborne for only 20 minutes and a module carrying experiments was to be salvaged from the Atlantic Ocean. Officials view the launch as a key step in recovering Brazil's space program after a satellite-launching rocket exploded at the same site in 2003 and killed 21 people, including several scientists. Critics say military control and a small budget are to blame for little progress in the space program of Latin America's largest country.

Honeywell Profit Rises on Aerospace, Construction (Source: Reuters)
Honeywell reported a 17 percent rise in quarterly profit, beating Wall Street forecasts, on strong sales of aviation products and systems used to heat and cool large industrial buildings. The world's largest maker of cockpit electronics said business was particularly strong outside the United States. Honeywell reported second-quarter profit of $611 million, up from $521 million a year earlier.

Virginia Governor May Boost Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Budget (Source: Spaceports Blog)
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine visited the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and the commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport to be briefed on the work involving suborbital and orbital flight projects, Earth Science research and technology development. Governor Kaine has already started writing the budget for the next two years (2008-2009). He says funding for and policy initiatives with the Wallops Island facility are real possibilities. In the past session of the Virginia legislature, Kaine offered and signed the Virginia Spaceflight Liability and Immunity Act that became effective July 1.

Space Foundation Undertakes ITAR Survey (Source: Space Foundation)
In an effort to assess the impact of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) on companies in the space industry, the Space Foundation has undertaken an ITAR compliance survey designed for senior executives and program managers. This survey, commissioned by the Space Foundation, is designed to acquire tangible information such as financial and personnel costs and programmatic delays, to better characterize the effect of ITAR regulations. To share your experience with ITAR, visit http://www.spacefoundation.org/itar/story.php.

Alaska Spaceport Open House (Source: Kodiak Daily Mirror)
A missile isn’t being launched this weekend at the Kodiak Launch Complex, but the missile site will be in the spotlight during an open house with visits from aerospace industry leaders. Pat Ladner, president and chief executive officer of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp., which operates the Kodiak spaceport, said today the event gives the community a chance to come to site, look at its facilities and ask questions about missile operations. As part of the open house, the Kodiak Cable Co. will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially recognize completion of an underwater fiber-optic cable connecting the launch site to a system that runs throughout the state and the Lower 48, providing fast data transmission. In addition, booths will be manned by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and contractors including Venturi Corp., MilTech and Sandia Labs.

Michoud Employment to Drop (Source: Forbes)
With the shift of the U.S. space program from the shuttle to the Constellation program designed to send astronauts back to the moon and beyond, employment at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility will drop, a top official said. But how many people will eventually be employed is yet to be determined, said James Bray, program manager for Lockheed Martin's work on the new project at Michoud. The assembly facility currently has about 2,400 workers - 1,000 of which perform the labor-intensive building of the huge external fuel tanks for the shuttle, another 1,000 that provide support services for Lockheed Martin and another 400 that operate the facility for NASA. Michoud has 15 external fuel tanks left to be built for the shuttle program.

Scratch a Space Nut, Find a Hippie (Source: WIRED)
"You're rising higher and higher," intones a soft voice. "You're going out through the top of the hotel, and now you can see the Potomac, and now all of Washington." Cheesy new age music swells. The meditation was part of a kick-off for the annual Space Frontier Foundation conference. The people in the assembled crowd -- which include a former astronaut, several soon-to-be space tourists and lots of clever engineers -- keep their heads bowed and their eyes closed. "Now you're floating, you're floating in space, kind of like Star Child from 2001: A Space Odyssey," says our guide. "And the Earth is below you, and it's amazing and it's incredible, just blues and greens and whites."

It was a surprising prelude to the annual conference held by an earnest, respectable group that advocates entrepreneurial efforts to speed up space exploration and colonization. The event addressed practical realities of the new commercial space industry, and representatives from companies such as Rocketplane Global and Space Adventures were on hand to talk up their offerings. Visit http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2007/07/overview to view the article.

NASA Studies Shuttle Seal Problem (Source: USA Today)
In an eerie parallel to the problems that doomed space shuttle Challenger, NASA is grappling with O-rings as the agency prepares to launch a second teacher into space. Malfunctioning O-rings, the seals between sections of the shuttle's booster rockets, led to Challenger's explosion shortly into its 1986 flight. Teacher Christa McAuliffe and six crewmates died. McAuliffe's backup, Barbara Morgan, is slated to lift off Aug. 7 on shuttle Endeavour, Challenger's replacement. It will be Morgan's first space flight. A NASA team is studying why recent batches of O-rings have a higher-than-usual number of specks of unmixed rubber, similar to bits of flour in a partially mixed bowl of cake batter. If such specks are too large or too close together, they can make the rings stiffer. The specks, detected by X-ray, are about the size of a grain of salt. On Challenger, the rings were so stiff from cold weather that hot gases escaped from the booster, igniting the fuel.

NASA Launches Interactive Online Tour of the Space Station (Source: NASA)
The International Space Station is now accessible in cyberspace. NASA launched its Interactive Space Station Reference Guide, a new tool that features an in-depth look inside and outside of the orbiting laboratory that has never before been seen. It is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/station. The guide provides an up-to-date interactive overview of the station's complex configuration, design and component systems. It includes a video introduction and narration by NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who lived aboard the station for six months as an Expedition 9 science officer and flight engineer.