March 28 News Items

NASA Awards Data Center Contract to University of Alaska (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected the University of Alaska for the management and operations of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System Synthetic Aperture Radar Distributed Active Archive Center. The total maximum value of the cost, no-fee contract is approximately $39 million over the five-year contract period. The archive center is devoted to the collection, processing, archiving, distribution and support of science data from, but not limited to, Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites. (3/28)

Federal Task Force Releases Report on Aerospace Workforce (Source: USDOL)
The Interagency Aerospace Revitalization Taskforce, led by the U.S. Department of Labor, released a report that offers strategies for meeting the aerospace industry's growing talent demands in an environment where young people are neither prepared nor inclined to enter it. According to U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao: "This report outlines several strategies for increasing the pool of workers qualified for high skill aerospace careers and makes it clear that this will require a coordinated and sustained effort by the private and public sectors."

Among the report's findings, the taskforce recognizes that establishing clear lines of communication with all parties is a critical step in building the aerospace talent pipeline. It plans to create a cyber community designed to allow users to share information on promising practices in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and training; outreach to and mentoring of students and prospective hires; and industry recruiting successes. The report recommends streamlining the security clearance process and increasing the portability of such clearances from one job and agency to the next. A coordinated industry investment strategy is also recommended to replicate model STEM education practices and to support apprenticeship models and the entry of transitioning adults into the industry. (3/26)

Universities to Research Life in Space (Source: Miami Herald)
The University of Hawaii at Hilo and the Colorado School of Mines will jointly research supporting human life in outer space. The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems at the University of Hawaii develops technologies to enable humans to sustain life on another planet. It has agreements with NASA to test remote-controlled vehicles and hopes to work with commercial partners. And the Colorado School of Mines Center for Space Resources - which focuses on how natural resources can meet human survival needs on the moon and Mars - works with Lockheed Martin on producing oxygen from lunar rocks and soil. The two universities expect to sign an agreement on April 4 to establish the partnership. (3/28)

ESA Satellite Technology Enhances Nuclear Monitoring (Source: ESA)
Satellite telecommunication technology developed with support from ESA is being used to enhance the connections between the International Atomic Energy Agency's remote monitoring center and nuclear facilities around the world, including the Chernobyl site. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is well known for their mission of monitoring the worldwide flow of nuclear materials and safeguarding the implementation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. To support the online monitoring of nuclear facilities, the IAEA has a remote monitoring data center, which downloads data from over 140 systems worldwide. Fifty radiation detection systems and 90 surveillance systems (including 340 cameras producing 150,000 images per day) generate to up to two gigabytes per day of global data traffic. (3/28)

Institute Extends Pact with NASA Langley (Source: DailyPress)
The National Institute of Aerospace in Hampton has a new five-year contract extension to continue working with NASA Langley Research Center. NASA will pay up to $36 million over five years, following the first contract between the two agencies signed in 2002. "Our activities are very closely aligned with those of NASA Langley," said Robert Lindberg, NIA president. "We are excited to continue this important relationship and to further contribute to NASA space exploration, aeronautics research and science missions." NIA conducts research to support NASA's aerospace and atmospheric science missions, provides graduate-level education in science and engineering and works on spreading technologies developed by NASA and NIA.

NIA was formed in 2002 to build collaboration between NASA and the academic community. The institute offers master's and doctoral degrees in engineering and science and has partnerships with: Hampton University, Georgia Tech, North Carolina A&T State University, N.C. State University, University of Maryland, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Old Dominion University and the College of William and Mary. (3/28)

Australian Farmer Finds Mystery Space Junk (Source: Reuters)
A cattle farmer in Australia's remote northern outback on Friday said he had found a giant ball of twisted metal, which he believes is space junk from a rocket used to launch communications satellites. Farmer James Stirton found the odd-shaped ball last year on his 40,000 hectare property, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) west of the northern Queensland state capital of Brisbane. He said the object was hollow, and covered in a carbon-fiber material. He has contacted some U.S.-based aerospace companies to try to find out what the object really is. Sydney's Powerhouse Museum said it was not uncommon for people to find spacejunk in remote areas of Australia. (3/28)

Odyssey Moon Announces Agreement to Fly Memorial Remains to Moon (Source: SpaceRef.com)
Odyssey Moon Limited, a commercial provider of lunar transportation products and services, announced today that it has reached a commercial launch services agreement with Celestis, Inc., the pioneer and global leader in Memorial Spaceflight. The agreement provides for payload capacity aboard Odyssey Moon's lunar missions for placing memorial flight capsules and modules in lunar orbit or on the Moon." Visit http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25044 for information.

Japan: China's Space Development Can Pose Military Threat (Source: AFP)
A Japanese defence ministry think-tank has warned that China's space program could pose a military threat to other countries. The review said China is likely to continue its space development program "as a vital means of achieving military competitiveness against the United States...The organizations engaged in China's space development have strong ties to the People's Liberation Army and a considerable number of its satellites are presumably intended for military purposes," the National Institute for Defense Studies said. "Missiles can destroy not only US artificial satellites but also Japanese intelligence-gathering satellites," the review said. "The possibility has emerged that the cluster of satellites will come under a great threat when international tension heightens." (3/27)

Russian Kosmos Launches German Military Radar Satellite (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Kosmos rocket launched the fourth in a series of small SAR-Lupe radar imaging satellites for the German military. The Kosmos-3M rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk spacceport in northern Russia. The launch had been planned for Tuesday, but was delayed two days by poor weather at the launch site. The satellite, built by German company OHB-System, is the fourth of five planned small satellites designed to radar imagery for the German military. The fifth and final satellite is scheduled for launch late this year. (3/27)

Boeing Targets Small Businesses for NASA Work (Source: Boeing)
Boeing Company hosted a small-business supplier forum March 19 in Houston that attracted more than 75 companies interested in working together to compete for NASA's Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC) at Johnson Space Center. To reduce costs, FDOC consolidates a portion of NASA's Space Program Operations and Mission Support Operations contracts. NASA is scheduled to select a contractor in November, with work starting in January 2009. (3/27)

GAO: U.S. Lacks Roadmap for Space Security (Source: Reuters)
The U.S. military and U.S. intelligence agencies have failed to produce an overarching roadmap for spending billions of dollars on the use of space to protect national security, the Government Accountability Office said. Without such an integrated guide to decision-making, the U.S. faces possible "gaps in some areas of space operations and redundancies in others." Total military and intelligence agency spending on space may be as high as $30 billion a year, including "black," or classified programs, according to one expert.

Differences of opinion between the military and intelligence communities plus their "cultural differences" have delayed a joint plan, said the GAO report. "Until a national security space strategy is issued, the defense and intelligence communities may continue to make independent decisions and use resources that are not necessarily based on national priorities," it said. "That means they may be missing opportunities for efficiencies and integrated solutions that would boost national security," said the report's author.

John Pike, a space expert at globalsecurity.org, a research group, said the absence of an overall plan was not the sole reason for schedule delays and performance shortfalls that have dogged many big-ticket U.S. efforts in space in recent years. "The programs themselves are perfectly capable of doing that on their own," he said. Visit http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN2737399320080327 to view the article. (3/27)

Forty Years On, Yuri Gagarin's Death Still a Mystery (Source: RIA Novosti)
Forty years after he perished in a plane crash, the death of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, remains the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories. Gagarin died on March 27, 1968, a little under seven years after becoming the first human to fly to space and orbit the Earth. His death came during what should have been a routine practice flight in a MiG-15UTI fighter plane. Soviet officials made no official announcement as to the cause of the crash and all the details of the accident were archived and marked "Top Secret."

Despite top-level reluctance to look into the causes of the accident, even during Soviet times there were whispers and rumors that the cosmonaut's death was due to something more than a routine training flight gone wrong. The theories as to the 'true' cause of the crash ranged from the plausible to the outlandish: in 1986, a belated inquest suggested that the afterburners of a passing jet may have caused the crash. Others alleged that the then Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, had ordered Gagarin's death due to feelings of envy over the charismatic cosmonaut's popularity.

Fringe theories had it that Gagarin had been taken away by aliens, while another theory, voiced in the 1990s by Finnish conspiracy theorists, claimed that Gagarin had never been in space and that the whole thing had been an elaborate Soviet propaganda exercise. Gagarin was murdered, they said, to protect the secret. (3/27)

Nanomaterial Turns Radiation Directly Into Electricity (Source: New Scientist)
Materials that directly convert radiation into electricity could produce a new era of spacecraft and even Earth-based vehicles powered by high-powered nuclear batteries, say US researchers. Beginning in the 1960s, the US and Soviet Union used thermoelectric materials that convert heat into electricity to power spacecraft using nuclear fission or decaying radioactive material. The Pioneer missions were among those using the latter, "nuclear battery" approach. But thermoelectric materials have very low efficiency. Now US researchers say they have developed highly efficient materials that can convert the radiation, not heat, from nuclear materials and reactions into electricity.

Tests of layered tiles of carbon nanotubes packed with gold and surrounded by lithium hydride are under way. Radioactive particles that slam into the gold push out a shower of high-energy electrons. They pass through carbon nanotubes and pass into the lithium hydride from where they move into electrodes, allowing current to flow. "You load the material with nuclear energy and unload an electric current," says one of the researchers. (3/27)

Shuttle Mission Slips to May 31 with External Tank Issues (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
NASA has started a week-long process of refining their launch date targets, caused by delays to scheduled delivery dates for several External Tanks. STS-124 has already slipped to No Earlier Than May 31. ET-128 - STS-124's tank - is now inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), but has not made it to KSC in time to support the previous May 25 launch date, while STS-119 is now certain to slip into 2009. All slips will not affect the ability to complete the full manifest through to 2010. (3/27)

GenCorp Posts Profit in First-Quarter Results (Source: Sacramento Bee)
GenCorp reported a $3.3 million profit from its continuing operations in the first quarter of 2008, as it reduced expenses related to environmental cleanup and retirement benefits. The earnings also reflected growth in sales of several missile and propulsion systems. GenCorp had a loss of $2.1 million on continuing operations in the first quarter of 2007. (3/27)

Fighting Gravity: Central Florida Students Enjoy Zero G Flight (Source: The Minaret)
A group in the University of Central Florida's Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) experienced zero gravity through a program sponsored by Space Florida. UCF Professor Larry Chew provided an experiment for the students to build. There were six groups that worked to create and design their own experiments. Three were from UCF, two were middle school groups, and one was a high school group. From the six groups, one person from each was given the chance to go on a Zero-G flight along with their experiments, completely free of charge. This is the first year Space Florida has sponsored a program like this for students. Teachers who want to promote space education in the classroom are usually the passengers on Zero-G flights. (3/27)

Ukraine, US Draft Agreement on Space Exploration (Source: Itar-Tass)
Ukraine and the United States have drafted an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful space exploration. The document is expected to be signed within the framework of U.S. President George Bush’s visit to Kiev scheduled for March 31 – April 1. A NASA representative is expected to be in the delegation. This will be a framework agreement. It has been drafted for about two years. Ukrainian and American companies study the possibilities for further cooperation, including “some aspects of anti-ballistic missile defense. (3/27)

Development Program for Sweden's Kiruna Space City (Source: SSC)
Several Swedish organizations have together devised a long-term development program for Kiruna Space City. Initiatives will be taken in many different areas and a Space Council will be established in Kiruna. The aim is to involve increasing numbers of players in the task of developing Kiruna Space City. “Kiruna Space City gives Sweden and Europe fantastic opportunities to achieve something really major,” says Kiruna’s mayor Kenneth Stålnacke. “There are already unique possibilities here for business, research and education in the space sector to develop further. With Spaceport Sweden here in Kiruna, we here in Europe have an opportunity to create something new and exciting round space tourism. Together we will further develop Space Campus Kiruna into an innovative environment and an international meeting place for research, education and business development.” (3/26)

Sweden Plans Space Symposium for Spaceport Effort (Source: SSC)
Since the official inauguration of Spaceport Sweden in January 2007, many steps towards personal suborbital spaceflight from Kiruna have been taken. To be precise 26 work packages, regarding everything from accommodation to space operations and astronauts’ timetables, have successfully been accomplished during the last 14 months. The Spaceport Sweden team will present the conclusions of the work packages so far and also the way forward. Virgin Galactic has been intensely involved in the work packages, and has simultaneously focused on several other current topics.

During an April 1 event, Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic will be providing latest information on the recently unveiled designs of the prototype commercial space ship and carrier aircraft which are now close to completion at Scaled Composites in Mojave California. He will also be sharing the vision for Virgin Galactic including the likely diversification of the business into the areas of space science and payload deployment as well as continuing work towards flights from Spaceport Sweden. (3/27)