February 15 News Items

US to Use Missiles to Destroy Failed Spysat (Source: SpaceToday.net)
The US military, at the direction of the White House, plan to use one or more missiles to destroy a failed reconnaissance satellite before it reenters on its own next month. Officials said the decision to destroy the satellite is based on concerns that the satellite's fuel tank, containing over 1,000 lbs (450 kg) of frozen hydrazine, could survive reentry and pose a health risk. Current plans call for using at least one modified SM-3 missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific to break up the satellite prior to reentry. The military will wait until the spacecraft reaches a low altitude so that the debris created by any impact would quickly reenter and not pose a risk to other spacecraft. Still, as a precaution, the US will wait until after the shuttle Atlantis returns on February 20th before firing. The decision to make the attempt came from President Bush and was based entirely on safety concerns, officials said, and was not based on worries that the spacecraft's sensitive technology could fall into the wrong hands.

Embry-Riddle Briefs Florida Legislators on Space Diversification (Source: ERAU)
An Embry-Riddle space policy analyst was invited to brief a Florida House of Representatives panel last week on the need to diversify the state's space industry beyond rocket launches. The briefing supported a proposal to the Legislature for funding a multi-university Space Technology and Research Diversification Initiative.

Conference Backs Plan to Revisit Moon (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
A conference of leading planetary scientists and space-exploration advocates that was widely expected to be critical of NASA's plans to return humans to the moon has instead affirmed the agency's goals. But the 50-member group also said NASA should rethink its goal to land people back on the moon by 2020 because that date is already slipping. They agreed that the space agency should focus ultimately on travel to Mars and must include international partners in the effort. The two-day closed-door workshop at Stanford University, titled "Examining the Vision: Balancing Science and Exploration," concluded that the next president must properly fund NASA, saying the agency has been asked "to do more with less" for nearly two decades.

Britain to Train Own Astronauts (Source: The Sun)
Britain could train its own astronauts for the first time after bowing to NASA pressure yesterday. The British National Space Center announced it would work with them on moon missions. The Government will consider training our own space travelers and a facility will be set up at Harwell, Oxfordshire. UK policy has been to support only robotic missions. But NASA wants us to take a full role in its Vision for Space Exploration project, aiming to build a moonbase by 2020. Brit shuttle astronaut Piers Sellers, 52, of Crowborough, East Sussex, said: “We have to join in this adventure.”

Europa Here We Come: NASA Tests Under-Ice Sub with Eye Toward Jupiter (Source: Scientific American)
NASA's Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer (ENDURANCE) is designed to operate autonomously in frigid water. Researchers from NASA and the University of Illinois at Chicago were atop the frozen surface of Wisconsin's Lake Mendota last week preparing for interplanetary exploration. Below them, under a sheet of ice more than a foot (30 centimeters) thick, the space agency's new Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-Ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer (ENDURANCE) maps the lake's underwater terrain. If this and subsequent voyages are successful, a similar vessel could be sent to navigate the suspected liquid water under the frozen surface of the ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa by the year 2028.

NASA’s Ames to Host Zero-G Flights (Source: NASA)
Commercial, weightless flights will be at Moffett Field, Calif., under the terms of an agreement with the Zero Gravity Corp. “We’re delighted to have signed this historic agreement with ZERO-G,” said Ames Director S. Pete Worden. “This will further NASA’s goal of pursuing mutually beneficial partnerships with the emerging commercial space sector.” A Reimbursable Space Act Agreement between NASA’s Ames and ZERO-G allows the corporation to park its aircraft on the airfield while flight operations are being conducted and during scheduled flights. The agreement also calls for NASA and ZERO-G to develop research collaborations starting this fall.

2 Planets Found In Solar System That Is Similar To Our Own (Source: Washington Post)
Researchers have discovered two planets in a solar system 5,000 light-years away that appears to be structured in significant ways like our own. The planets are gas giants similar to but smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, and their relative sizes are also similar. In addition, they orbit their star at distances proportional to the distances of Jupiter and Saturn from the sun. "This is the first time we've found a Jupiter-like planet in the same system as a Saturn planet," said Scott Gaudi of Ohio State University, lead investigator on the project. "There's reason now to believe there are probably many more solar systems like it."

Orbital 4th-Quarter Profit Doubles (Source:AP)
Satellite and rocket maker Orbital Sciences Corp. said its fourth-quarter profit doubled, due partly to strong revenue from its advanced space programs business. Orbital earned $15.8 million, compared with $7.8 million in the same quarter last year. The company's revenue rose 36 percent, to $293.1 million, from $215.8 million. The company's launch vehicles business also grew, with fourth-quarter revenue totaling $104.6 million, up 30 percent from the year-ago quarter. Orbital's research and development expenses also nearly tripled, to total $6.9 million in the quarter. For the full year, Orbital's profit totaled $56.7 million, or 93 cents per share, up from $35.1 million, or 56 cents per share, in 2006. The company's revenue totaled $1.08 billion, compared with $802.86 million in 2006.

Spacehab Reports Financial Results for Second Quarter (Source: Business Wire)
Spacehab posted a second quarter fiscal 2008 net loss of $32.8 million on revenue of $4.3 million, compared with a second quarter fiscal 2007 net loss of $1.8 million on revenue of $12.9 million. In November 2007, the Company converted the Series C convertible preferred stock into 89.9 million shares of common stock and affected a 1 for 10 reverse split.

Titan: Thar's Oil in That Thar Moon (Source: Discovery.com)
Worried about Earth running out of natural gas? Scientists have found a place that makes Earth's supplies look like drop in a bucket. The only problem is the reservoirs are located about 750 million miles away on Saturn's moon Titan. "It's really just kind of a fun fact," said planetary scientist Ralph Lorenz with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Lorenz and colleagues calculated the amount of liquid hydrocarbons on Titan using radar data gathered from the orbiting Cassini spacecraft. With about 20 percent of the moon mapped, scientists have found several hundred lakes and seas dotting Titan's surface. Extrapolating from lake depths on Earth, the researchers estimate several of the lakes on Titan each contain more than the total amount of natural gas on Earth, estimated to be about 130 billion tons. That means the orange moon has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.