March 21 News Items

Could COTS Close the Gap? (Sources: Lurio Report, Space Politics)
Not long ago, some in Washington were speaking of extending the shuttle’s operating life or accelerating Orion as a fix for the human spaceflight gap. Neither makes fiscal sense. But the reality of the end of Shuttle has really started to sink in in Congress, as has the distaste for depending on Russia’s Soyuz for U.S. human transport to orbit. Some Members appear to have noticed that COTS could fill that gap. Florida Senator Bill Nelson and Senator Vitter of Louisiana suggested to NASA's Administrator Mike Griffin during a recent hearing that the agency should consider accelerating COTS and increasing its budget.

Griffin said he was working with SpaceX to try to speed up progress towards using the Falcon 9/Dragon for astronaut transport as well as cargo supply to the ISS. But additional money would be required to accelerate COTS’s human flight option. Under present planning, the COTS human flight demonstration program would start under an optional COTS ‘phase D,’ projected for 2011. But as yet there is no funding there for ‘phase D.’ In an interview with the Washington Post, Elon Musk asserted that SpaceX "might have a manned spacecraft capability by the end of 2011 if NASA exercises its option under a 2006 agreement to provide cargo service. With that go-ahead, SpaceX would put its manned rocket program into high gear...” (3/20)

Canadian Feds Delay Ruling on Sale of Canada's Top Space Firm (Source: CTV)
In the face of mounting domestic pressure, Industry Minister Jim Prentice is holding off government approval of the $1.3-billion sale of MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates and a multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded Radarsat-2 satellite to U.S. weapons maker Alliant Techsystems. Government insiders say Prentice has ordered another 30-day review of the proposal sale that has been strongly denounced by Canadian scientists, editorial writers, and Calgary Conservative MP Art Hanger. Critics say the sale of Radarsat-2's state-of-the-art capability to monitor the Arctic would be lost to the U.S., just as Canada's Arctic sovereignty is being promoted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It would also mean the loss of high-quality technological jobs in Canada. (3/20)