July 28 News Items

Fatal Blast Stuns Leaders of New Mexico Spaceport, Virgin Galactic (Source: Florida Today)
The fatal rocket test pad explosion that rocked Scaled Composites late Thursday also shook up leaders of the state of New Mexico and Virgin Galactic. Only hours before the explosion they had celebrated the progress being made on SpaceShipTwo and a desert spaceport here that would be home base for the spaceliner fleet.

It's unknown how much impact the accident might have on plans to start early next year on test flights of the new spaceships and construction of the futuristic hangar and terminal at New Mexico's Spaceport America. A half dozen or so top Virgin Galactic officials had flown to New Mexico from London this week, working with the state government to review competing architects' designs for the spaceport terminal. They have picked a winner and were anxious Thursday afternoon to show it off on Friday. Instead, they'll wait until some as-yet undetermined future date.

Chief Astronaut is Skeptical of Allegations (Source: Florida Today)
NASA's acting chief astronaut said his office does not have a widespread alcohol-abuse problem and that he has never seen an inebriated colleague fly an aircraft or spacecraft. "I flew with a lot of astronauts before I got selected, and I've flown twice in space," said Mark Polansky, who joined NASA as an aircraft pilot in 1992 and took a job as an astronaut four years later. "And I can unequivocally say that I have never, ever witnessed what I would consider excessive use of alcohol, anybody intoxicated or impaired, certainly not at the point of getting ready to get on any kind of a vehicle and it affecting their ability to do their job."

NASA Ignored Concerns After Vowing Change, Report Says (Source: Houston Chronicle)
A report on astronaut health and behavior appeared to undermine NASA's assertions for the past two decades that its work culture has been changed to put more value on workers' concerns about the safety of spaceflights. NASA supervisors approved launches despite advice from agency physicians, called flight surgeons, that shuttle astronauts were unfit to fly, according to the report commissioned by NASA director Michael Griffin.

Two of the occasions involved warnings from flight surgeons and fellow astronauts that a crew member was drunk, the report said, and they were among cases in which "major crew medical or behavior problems were identified to (NASA leaders) and the medical advice was disregarded." Air Force Col. Richard Bachmann Jr., who chaired the report committee, said flight surgeons found NASA's treatment of their advice " 'demoralizing' to the point where (they) said they would be less likely to report concerns in the future."

Deputy Administrator Shana Dale said the agency takes safety issues very seriously and had dispatched Bryan O'Connor, chief of safety and mission assurance, to Johnson to interview astronauts about the allegations of alcohol use — and make sure the team is prepared for its next space shuttle launch, scheduled for Aug. 7.

Huntsville Robotics Lab Gets Funding in House Bill (Source: Huntsville Times)
Marshall Space Flight Center will have a new robotics test lab if a key 2008 NASA spending bill makes it through Congress this year. The bill was approved by the U.S. House Thursday and now must be debated by the Senate. U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, included $2.6 million in the $17.6 billion spending bill to be used for a Robotics & Exploration Testbed at Marshall, his office said Friday.

Despite Revelations, NASA Declines to Forbid Alcohol (Source: Miami Herald)
NASA has neglected alcohol use and the psychological health of astronauts ''since the earliest days of the astronaut program,'' and alcohol still is readily available in the crew quarters at the Kennedy Space Center, a panel of experts reported. One unidentified astronaut reportedly was drunk when he showed up for a shuttle launch. Several hours after a mechanical glitch scrubbed liftoff, he was drunk again when he boarded a NASA T-38 jet for a flight home.

Another unnamed astronaut was inebriated before boarding a Russian rocket for a flight to the Space Station. ''We don't know if these are the only two incidents in the entire history of the astronaut corps or the tip of the iceberg,'' said Air Force Col. Richard Bachmann Jr., who chaired the report committee. He cautioned against any temptation to ''impugn the entire astronaut corps'' of about 100 men and women, but he and the rest of the committee indicated they suspect the problem might extend much deeper than the two incidents.

Despite the report and the widening scandal, alcohol is not being banned in the astronaut quarters, NASA officials said, and will be available to the crew members of shuttle Endeavour while they go into quarantine three days before their Aug. 7 flight. ''There is alcohol available," said Ellen Ochoa, an astronaut who serves as director of flight-crew operations. "It is permitted, but it's only for off-duty time."

NASA Selects Lightning Protection System Contractor (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected Ivey's Construction Inc. of Merritt Island, Florida, to build a new lightning protection system for Launch Pad 39B at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The system will support launches of the Constellation Program's Ares I rockets. The lightning protection system is designed to reduce the probability of a direct lightning strike to the Ares I and associated launch equipment during processing and other activities prior to flight. Under the $27,915,000 contract, the company will provide all labor and materials to fabricate and construct three 600-foot, self-supporting structural steel towers and an overhead wire system with associated conductors.

Armadillo Aerospace Reports Progess on Modular Rocket Design (Source: Space.com)
Success is being reported by Armadillo Aerospace of Mesquite, Texas in the group's modular rocket work. The company has completed a set of tethered flights of the first modular rocket segment, flights that went much quicker than expected. Armadillo Aerospace is led and bankrolled by John Carmack, a 36-year-old pioneering programmer in the computer gaming industry. The small research and development team is designing, building, and flight testing computer-controlled rocket vehicles, with an eye towards piloted suborbital vehicle development in the coming years. Over the past six years, Carmack as a rocket entrepreneur has spent slightly more than $3 million sponsoring the work through earnings gleaned from his computer gaming business.

Iridium Satellite Considers Ambitious Earth-Imaging Role (Source: Wall Street Journal)
As U.S. agencies scale back plans to monitor weather and climate changes from space, satellite-operator Iridium Satellite LLC and an international earth-imaging organization are accelerating talks about a potential $1 billion partnership to plug anticipated coverage gaps. Iridium's discussions with the Group on Earth Observations, or GEO, a Swiss-based umbrella group supported by the European Commission and more than 100 countries and international organizations, reflect growing global interest in placing weather and environmental sensors as supplemental payloads on Iridium's next-generation satellite fleet.

Deadly Blast Could Impact Space Tourism (Source: AP)
A deadly explosion at the Scaled Composites test site has cast light on inherent dangers in rocketry that have been overshadowed by public enthusiasm for the adventure of space tourism. The accident, which killed three people, came nearly two years after Scaled Composites first began designing its top-secret suborbital spaceship for British tycoon Richard Branson, who hopes to fly tourists by 2009. The tragedy stunned space tourism supporters, many of whom were betting that Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceline would be the first in the fledgling business to send well-heeled tourists out of the atmosphere. "I suspect that this is a major setback for Virgin Galactic, because they may have to go back to the drawing board for propulsion, for PR reasons if nothing else," wrote Randy Simberg on his blog Transterrestrial Musings.

Spaceport Officials Cancel Announcement in Wake of Explosion (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Spaceport America officials have canceled an important announcement in the wake of Thursday's fatal explosion at a California facility where Virgin Galactic's vehicles were being tested. It is unclear what effect the explosion could have on the fledgling commercial space industry and the ongoing $198 million Spaceport America project in southern New Mexico. Spaceport officials had planned to announce Friday the selection of an architectural firm and engineering team that will design Virgin Galactic's terminal and hangar facilities at Spaceport America, set for construction at a remote site in Sierra County.

Houston-Area Company Supplied NASA's Sabotaged Computer (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A Houston-area company supplied a sabotaged computer that was to fly aboard shuttle Endeavour in less than two weeks, but was found before being loaded onto the spaceship for a trip to the international space station. Invocon Inc., an electronics research and development firm based in Conroe, Texas, has not yet identified any suspects or motives.