February 6 News Items

Russia Suspicious Over Iran Space Launch Test (Source: BBC)
Russia thinks the launch of an Iranian rocket into space raises suspicion over the true aim of its nuclear program, a foreign ministry official has said. "Long-range missiles are one of the components of a [nuclear] weapons system," Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said. Therefore Monday's test launch of Iran's Explorer-1 space rocket was "of course, a cause for concern", he said. Iran insists its nuclear program is purely for peaceful energy production. Correspondents say the statement by Mr Losyukov appeared to indicate that Moscow increasingly shares Western concerns about Tehran's nuclear course. "It increases suspicion of Iran regarding its possible desire to create a nuclear weapon," he was quoted as saying.

Progress Launched to Space Station (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Soyuz rocket successfully launched a new Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station on Tuesday. The Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Tuesday and placed the Progress M-63 spacecraft (designated Progress 28 by NASA) into orbit. The unmanned cargo spacecraft, carrying 2.5 tons of supplies, is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Thursday. An older Progress, M-62, undocked from the station on Monday to free the docking port on the Pirs module for the new Progress.

Bigelow Plans May Bring Jobs to Florida (Source: Florida Today)
A start-up company planning a private space station is considering launching crew and cargo from Cape Canaveral starting in late 2011. American aerospace giant Lockheed Martin would upgrade its Atlas 5 rocket for human space flight as part of the endeavor -- a potential economic boon for the state of Florida. The new venture could help offset the anticipated loss of 2,500 to 3,500 Florida jobs when NASA retires its shuttle fleet in late 2010. The number of jobs that might be created remains unclear.

Bigelow intends to build a commercial complex in low Earth orbit that would be visited by space tourists, scientific researchers and perhaps astronauts from countries that would like to become space-faring nations. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, would provide the launch services at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Bigelow plans to launch six missions in its first year of operation. Twelve missions would launch crews and cargo to the complex in 2013 and 2014, and by the fourth year of operations, the company would be launching 18 missions a year.

Air Force Gives NRO Satellite Contract to United Launch Alliance (Source: Denver Business Journal)
United Launch of Alliance of Denver has been awarded an Air Force contract worth $505 million to send three satellites into orbit. The three National Reconnaissance Office satellites will be carried aboard Delta IV rockets. The NRO is tasked with operating overhead reconnaissance missions for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. Two of the missions will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The third will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

ISS Tourism Trips to End with October Garriott Flight (Source: Flight International)
Space tourism trips to the International Space Station will no longer be possible from May 2009 when the station increases its crew compliment from three to six, European Space Agency ISS program sources have told Flight. US company Space Adventures, which has co-operated with Russia's Federal Space Agency (FSA) to provide places for the tourists - called spaceflight participants - will no longer be able to offer flights. However Space Adventures insists it can still provide flight opportunities: "We have secured the April 2009 seat. We are working to secure additional seats for 2010, and beyond."

Negative Response to One Texas Spaceport Proposal (Source: Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
A company with plans to offer commercial space flights within the next four years has returned to Kenedy County as a possible location for a resort-like spaceport. But the project isn't a fit now for Kenedy Memorial Foundation land. Space Access President Steve Wurst said he's considering several Texas sites, but would not talk specifically about Kenedy County. The Indiana-based company has spent 12 years developing a spacecraft that put the price of space travel similar to that of an ocean cruise vacation.

Space Access officials met about two months ago with representatives from the Kenedy Memorial Foundation, which owns land in the county, said foundation CEO Marc Cisneros. While Cisneros said the idea of sub-orbital flights and space-themed resorts is visionary, it isn't something the foundation is negotiating for now. "Right now, based on what we saw, what they wanted to do, the aspects of it were not of interest to the foundation," he said.

Beijing and Moscow to Propose Joint Space Treaty (Source: World Politics Review)
Valery Loshchinin, Russia's ambassador to the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, revealed that on Feb. 12, Russia and China will present a joint draft treaty to restrict the deployment of weapons in outer space. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to address the 65-member, U.N.-affiliated forum on that day. Neither Russian nor Chinese government representatives have publicly indicated what provisions are included in the draft treaty. Nevertheless, both governments have long been concerned by U.S. military programs in this realm. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits countries from basing weapons of mass destruction in space, but its application to space-based missile defenses involving lasers or other non-nuclear weapons remains under dispute.

Critics Say Ares Rocket is Flawed (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The rocket that NASA is betting on to return humans to space after the space shuttle retires is in trouble. Assailed by a loud chorus of critics, hobbled by a lack of money and beset by technical problems, the Ares I launch vehicle is suffering from a growing perception that it is another NASA project that will never get off the ground. In particular, some critics have urged that NASA ditch the untested Ares, a so-called "stick" rocket powered by five segments of the solid rocket boosters used on the shuttle, in favor of the Atlas V401, which is already used to reliably launch spy satellites into orbit.

Their arguments got a big boost Tuesday when a private startup space company, Bigelow Aerospace, announced that it is pursuing plans to use the Atlas V to put humans into space by 2012, three years before NASA plans to send its first manned Ares flight into low Earth orbit. NASA argues that the Atlas V currently is not robust enough to lift its 25-ton Orion crew capsule into space. Nonetheless, the news that entrepreneurs intend to employ an off-the-shelf rocket -- one that NASA rejected as being too expensive and unsafe to modify for its purposes -- was immediately seized on by Ares I critics.

Kennedy Space Center Could Face Job Losses NASA Budget Proposal (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA expects to shed as many as 1,000 workers from its space-shuttle program in 2009 — including an unspecified number at Kennedy Space Center — as part of a $17.6 billion budget outlined Monday by the White House. The job cuts represent the first major reduction of NASA's workforce since President Bush decided to retire the shuttle in 2010 to make way for Constellation.

In addition, NASA has pushed to reduce the costs of the Constellation program, including the number of people required to design and build the craft. All that is doubly worrisome for KSC, where the shuttle is prepared for flight and launched. Constellation isn't scheduled to launch until March 2015; in the interim, as many as 5,000 of KSC's 15,000 contractors and civil-service workers could lose their jobs. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the budget amount was too low. He also continued his criticism of NASA's plans to rely on Russian rockets to send astronauts into space during the gap while KSC workers lose their jobs.