January 19 News Items

Rudy Pledges to Support Space Industry (Source: Forida Today)
Space industry representatives heard magic words from candidate Rudy Giuliani after they explained that the U.S. faces a five-year gap in human spaceflight. "This is not acceptable," said the Republican, on a tour of Florida to boost his flagging status in the presidential race. "America should be No. 1 and shouldn't have to be dependent on other countries." About 35 Florida space industry leaders met with Giuliani to push their vision of a well-funded space industry. They hope Giuliani's interest will make funding the space industry a national priority. "Our goal is, let's make sure we close this gap," said Giuliani.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Rein said that losing the lead in space technology would be like an army losing the high ground during battle. "Militaries and nations win wars by owning the high ground," said Rein, now communications manager for United Launch Alliance. "Space is the high ground of the future, and we must own it at all times." Norman Bobczynski, director of launch operations for SpaceX, said the United States is fourth in the number of commercial launches worldwide. "We have floundered in the area of commercial space," Bobczynski said. "We're working very hard to develop rockets that will fill that gap."

Moon Stuck (Source: Aviation Week)
Some of the most influential leaders of the space community are quietly working to offer the next U.S. president an alternative to President Bush's "vision for space exploration"--one that would delete a lunar base and move instead toward manned missions to asteroids along with a renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft. Top U.S. planetary scientists, several astronauts and former NASA division directors will meet privately at Stanford University on Feb. 12-13 to define these sweeping changes to the NASA/Bush administration Vision for Space Exploration (VSE).

NASA Moon Rocket May Shake Too Much (Source: NewsDay)
NASA is wrestling with a potentially dangerous problem in a spacecraft, this time in a moon rocket that hasn't even been built yet. Engineers are concerned that the new rocket meant to replace the space shuttle and send astronauts on their way to the moon could shake violently during the first few minutes of flight, possibly destroying the entire vehicle. "They know it's a real problem," said Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor Paul Fischbeck, who has consulted on risk issues with NASA in the past. "This thing is going to shake apart the whole structure, and they've got to solve it."