April 2 News Items

Alabama Center Gains While Other Centers Suffer Job Losses (Source: NSS-SCC)
Although the numbers remain worst-case estimates, it looks like NASA facilities in Florida, Texas, and Louisiana will lose thousands of jobs with the retirement of the Space Shuttle program. Florida’s Kennedy Space Center will be hardest hit with up to 6,400 jobs lost. Meanwhile, Alabama’s Marshall Space Flight Center is positioned to gain between 400-2,400 jobs. Alabama can thank its aggressive Congressional Delegation for protecting and expanding the center’s responsibilities and programs, despite despite NASA's Ten Healthy Centers policy aimed at maintaining sustainable workloads for all its centers nationwide. (4/2)

New Era In Space Travel Begins -- And The U.S. Is On The Sidelines (Source: Minnesota Post)
A new era in space travel is set to open Thursday when an orbiting freighter the size of a London double-decker bus is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station and deliver fresh supplies. At the same time American scientists and space buffs applaud this breakthrough, many also lament the fact that it comes from Europe while the United States prepares to move to the sidelines of space travel. The three space shuttles still operating in the United States' fleet are scheduled to retire in 2010. First launched in the 1980s, they are expensive to operate. More important, their safety is an increasing worry for the sake of astronauts aboard them. (4/2)

Space Radar Cancellation Confirmed (Source: Aviation Week)
Cancellation of the Space Radar (SR) program, now confirmed by contractors, marks another setback for the snakebitten U.S. military space imaging program. Two teams, led by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, had been working on SR, directed by an integrated program office (IPO) involving the U.S. Space & Missile Center, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Under a January 2005 restructuring, which created the IPO, the government had been due to select a single contractor team in fiscal 2009, leading to first launch in 2016.

Space Radar has been under pressure because of high costs. A Congressional Budget Office study in early 2007 postulated that the SR would need a 40-square meter active electronically scanned array antenna to achieve its target of 10-centimeter resolution in spotlight mode. However, it would not be able to track moving targets on the ground at an affordable constellation size: the cost of even a bare minimum nine-satellite system was estimated at $35 billion-$50 billion. (4/2)

Arizona University Mars Research the Topic of Free Lectures (Source: Tucson Citizen)
Mars exploration is becoming a hotter and hotter topic as the University of Arizona-led Phoenix Mars Lander mission nears its target. Four free lectures on Mars research will be held at 11 a.m. Saturdays in April at the UA's Biosphere 2. The $420 million Phoenix mission, which left Earth on Aug. 4 on a 423-million-mile journey, is slated to land in Mars' arctic region May 25. It will analyze soil and ice samples scooped from the surface for evidence of water and the elements of life. "This is a really incredible event, the first time the university has run a planetary mission like this," said one official. (4/2)

More Than 1,000 Jobs May Be Lost at Michoud (Souce: Times Picayune)
NASA's plan to phase out its space shuttle program could mean the loss of as many as 1,300 jobs at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans during the next five years. But NASA officials say that figure represents a "worse than worst-case scenario." What is more, hundreds of new jobs will be created as NASA pursues the Constellation program, the next step in its ambitious plan to return to the moon. It will take NASA engineers several years to design the new system, but most of the hardware for the Constellation program eventually will be built at the Michoud plant. (4/2)

Universal Studios Plans Armstrong Biopic (Source: Variety)
Universal has acquired nonfiction novel "First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong" and will turn it into a film. Armstrong was a test pilot-turned-astronaut who was so driven to reach the moon and play the role of American hero that he became known as "the Ice Commander." "The closer he got to the moon, the further away he became from his family," said one official. "He had a family tragedy before Apollo that turned him into this driven astronaut, and he became such a perfect hero that while Buzz Aldrin was announced to be the first man on the moon, NASA reversed its decision because Neil was regarded as more heroic." He returned from the moon as one of the most famous men on Earth but didn't capitalize on it with a political career or endorsements. He reconnected with his family, shut out the world and became an intensely private man. (4/2)

Mini-Black Hole is Smallest Ever but Still Strong (Source: Reuters)
NASA scientists have identified the smallest black hole ever found -- less than four times the mass of our sun and about the size of a large city. But the mini-black hole, dubbed J1650, could still stretch a person into a "strand of spaghetti" with its pull, the researchers said. (4/2)

China to Launch Venezuela-Uruguay Satellite in 2008 (Source: RIA Novosti)
Venezuela and Uruguay plan to have their own communications satellite in space by the end of 2008. Under an agreement signed in 2005, the China Great Wall Industry Corp was contracted to design, manufacture, test and put into orbit the VENESAT-1 for Venezuela. Uruguay later joined the $241-million project, financing 10% of its cost. The launch is scheduled for late September-early November. The satellite, designed to have a service life of 15 years, will be launched from Xichang spaceport in Southwest China atop a CZ-3B rocket. (4/2)

Virgin and Google Plan Mars Colony Project (Source: Google)
Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars. The question is, do you want to join us? Ever yearned to journey to the stars? You can learn how to become a Virgle Pioneer, test your Pioneering potential, or join the Mission Control community that will help develop the 100 Year Plan we've outlined here. Visit http://www.google.com/virgle/ to view the project website. (4/1)(April Fools!)

MDA Boss Says Canadian Satellite Sale Wouldn't Hurt Canada (Source: Vancouver Sun)
Canada will retain total control over its Radarsat-2 surveillance satellite regardless of who owns it, says the head of the space company whose proposed sale to U.S. interests has raised concerns about national security. Daniel Friedmann, president of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA), says fears that the sale of his company to a U.S. defense contractor will jeopardize Canadian sovereignty are unfounded because the satellite will continue to operate under Canada's rules. "Canada's foreign affairs minister regulates everything about that satellite," he said. (4/2)

Japan Recruits Astronauts for First Time in Decade (Source: Space Daily)
Japan on Tuesday began recruiting astronauts for the first time in a decade in the wake of a successful mission to carry Japan's maiden space laboratory to the International Space Station. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will pick three candidates using screening procedures such as aptitude tests, medical checks and interviews. JAXA said it would announce its selections in February 2009. The successful candidates will take various training programs at NASA for two years before being certified as astronauts. (4/1)

Editorial: Both Parties Should Save Space (Source: Politico)
Americans’ support for building on the “greatest generation’s” achievements in space is so broad and deep that both political parties ought to include similar planks at their conventions this summer to commit the U.S. to continued and expanded space exploration. One quantifiable measure of deep popular support is successive Gallup polls. They show that, notwithstanding other issues that divide voters, Americans remain steadfast that space exploration is an important priority that deserves taxpayer funding. Americans’ support for space exploration is ingrained. It crosses political party lines. The foundation of our respect for the results of innovation and advancing technology goes back to the first days of the United States. Visit http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9282.html to view the aticle. (4/1)

Audit Raps NASA for Handling of Survey (Source: AP)
NASA shut down a massive air-safety survey project without ever properly evaluating, explaining or publicizing its purpose and results, and thus lost a chance for valuable insight into safety issues, the space agency's inspector general said. The watchdog office said NASA should interpret and analyze the results of its interviews with some 30,000 pilots, but NASA in a written response continued to reject that idea. NASA will evaluate the methodology that its staff used in the $11.3 million project, but going further to actually report on the findings isn't worthwhile because the interviews, which were stopped at the end of 2004, are less relevant with the passage of time, wrote the agency's associate administrator. (4/1)

Boeing, Orion Sign Mentor Agreement (Source: AP)
Boeing and Huntsville-based Orion Propulsion signed a government-sponsored agreement to work together on NASA's Ares I rocket, which will transport astronauts into space after the space shuttle retires. The one-year agreement was announced at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama and marks the first Mentor-Protege agreement in 2008 in support of a major NASA contract. Orion is a small company that provides propulsion engineering, testing, verification, qualification and production expertise to NASA and other partners. (4/1)

Brevard Appeals for Space Support (Source: Florida Today)
Brevard County commissioners voted to ask every fellow commissioner across the state to write their congressional representatives in support of space industry jobs. The action followed news that Kennedy Space Center could lose more than 6,000 jobs by 2011, after the shuttle’s retirement. The commission also asked the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast to analyze the potential economic impact of the job losses, which were higher than previous estimates. (4/1)

'Peanut' Stars May Explain Strange Supernovae (Source: New Scientist)
A pair of yellow supergiant stars, orbiting so close to one another that they form a single peanut-shaped object, has been discovered in a nearby galaxy. The astronomers who discovered it say that similar conjoined giants might be the source of some unusual supernova explosions. The stellar peanut inhabits a small galaxy called Holmberg IX, around 12 million light years from Earth. It was discovered using the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona. Over a period of 270 days, the team saw the star dim twice. This behaviour can be explained if there are actually two stars rotating around each other, so each periodically blocks the light from its neighbour. The precise shape of this "light curve" reveals that the two stars are bloated enough to share their outer regions, forming the peanut shape. (4/1)

Weldon, Feeney Seek to Prolong Shuttle Program (Source: Florida Today)
As NASA warned the nation against overreacting to its grim employment forecast, some of Florida's congressional delegation braced themselves for some painful possibilities. "When I practiced medicine, I always tried to be honest with my patients about their condition. Sometimes that was hard to do," said Rep. Dave Weldon, a physician. As a way to mitigate the losses, both lawmakers pushed for passage of Weldon's Space Act legislation, which would infuse future NASA budgets with more than $10 billion to prolong shuttle flights until the Constellation program becomes operational.

Both Weldon and Feeney pointed out that Congress was expected this week to authorize a $30 billion program supported by President Bush that would extend an HIV-prevention program in Africa for another five years. "You could retire the entire shuttle gap of five years if you spent $7 or $8 billion of that money," Feeney said. "I'm offended by the notion that the administration and Congress is deliberately going to create huge problems for American human space flight while we're spending $30 billion to Africa." (Source: 4/2)

Shuttle Retirement May Cost 2,300 Jobs in Houston (Source: Houston Chronicle)
As many as 2,300 people, most of them contractors, could lose their jobs at Johnson Space Center as the shuttle fleet nears retirement in two years. The number of permanent civil servants would essentially remain flat. The losses at Johnson Space Center could amount to as few as 400 jobs through 2011 if work quickly picks up on the Constellation program, the initiative to build a successor to the shuttle for missions to the moon and Mars. That would depend on an increase in congressional funding and support by the next president. (4/2)

Job Loss Impact Will Bring $1.5 Billion Annual Impact (Source: Florida Today)
With up to 6,400 Florida space jobs in jeopardy with the Shuttle's retirement, economic analyses indicate that at least as many KSC-dependent non-space jobs could also be lost in the communities around the space center. Local officials are now hoping to offset an estimated $1.5 billion per-year blow to the local economy. (4/2)

NASA Rejects European ISS Logistics Project (Source: Flight International)
NASA has rejected a European proposal to permanently dock an Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the International Space Station to try to insure against shortfalls in ISS resupply after the Space Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. The European proposal envisaged the Thales Alenia Space-built MPLM, called Raffaello, being permanently docked to the ISS's Harmony module's zenith port from January 2010. (4/2)

Status Update: Ares I Thrust Oscillation Mitigation (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
One of the top "RED" concerns for Ares I - Thrust Oscillation - has received an array of potential mitigation techniques, varying from detuning the vehicle, adding inhibitors, to a configuration change to a four segment first stage. A huge engineering effort is being conducted on solving the issue. Visit http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5394 to view the article. (4/2)

House Democrats Grill NASA's Mars Mission (Source: WIRED)
The House Committee on Science and Technology will challenge NASA's vision for space exploration during an April 3 hearing. Questions will include: Does the exploration architecture, as laid out by NASA, present a technically and programmatically viable approach for executing exploration beyond low Earth orbit under a pay-as-you-go strategy? Is the U.S. on the right track to reach the Moon by 2020, establish an outpost there, and eventually send humans to Mars, or do any changes need to be made to the architecture or implementation plan? How will progress in implementing the architecture be measured? How sustainable will NASA’s planned exploration initiative be, given the assumed constrained budgetary outlook as well as the cutbacks in funding for long-lead exploration technology development? The full meeting agenda is here. (4/2)

Superconductors Could Help Spacecraft Hover (Source: EE Times)
Luke Skywalker's space racer hovered unpowered above the ground in the seminal Star Wars movie, but scientists have searched in vain for a real-world technology that realizes the same dream. Now, Cornell University researchers propose that superconductors paired with permanent magnets could fit the bill. Superconductor technologies designed at Cornell aim to hold space-station modules and satellites in place without tethers or retrorockets by magnetically "pinning" them in place. Using unpowered superconductors and fixed permanent magnets, the Cornell researchers claim a new-age solution to longstanding stability and control problems in space vehicles. Visit http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207001324 to view the article.

University of Wisconsin Students Compete to Promote NASA (Source: UW)
From creating a space-based reality show called "NASA's Next" to assisting local organic farmers, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's NASA Means Business team has a slew of ideas about how to promote NASA. As part of a national collegiate competition, the team has developed a NASA Spaceflight Promotion Plan designed to market everything from NASA's well-known International Space Station to its lesser-known programs, such as research into organic foods. The team was one of four teams selected to move on to the final round this semester. In May, the team will travel to the Kennedy Space Center to present their final proposal at the 10th annual NASA Customer Engagement Conference. (4/2)

NASA Cancels Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle Test Study (Source: Flight International)
NASA has stopped a study it commissioned from the Aerospace Corporation that would have informed the agency’s flight test planning for the Ares I crew launch vehicle and its Orion crew exploration vehicle, but has been unable to explain why the work ceased. The commissioned study, which took place in 2007, was being carried out simultaneously with an internal NASA report and dealt with the Constellation program’s Ares I ground-test requirements. “We completed aspects of the study, but not the entire study as we envisioned. We provided NASA what we had, but received no authorization or request to proceed with further development of the study,” says Aerospace. (4/2)

Low Margins Cloud Loral's Success as Manufacturer (Source: Space News)
The sharp business-model differences between building commercial telecommunications satellites and operating them were on full display April 2 as Loral's top executive was forced to defend continued investment in what has been the world's most successful commercial satellite builder over the past several years. (4/2)

Swedish Authorities Look to Ease Way for Virgin Galactic (Source: Space News)
Swedish authorities planning to host flights of the Virgin Galactic suborbital space plane hope to lower the costs and regulatory barriers to the operation by having it classed as a sounding rocket and given the tax advantages of hot-air balloon flights, Swedish and Virgin Galactic officials said April 1. (4/2)

Florida Space Lab Supports Alzheimer's Research (Source: LabTechnologist.com)
A new theory on the origins of Alzheimer's has divided opinion in the medical world, but if proved right could revolutionize treatment. Florida Tech scientist Dr. Shaohua Xu of Florida's Space Life Sciences Lab at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has won recent grants from the state and NASA to test his theory. Conventional wisdom dictates that when tau protein joins together to form tangled fibers at the start of Alzheimer's, each tau molecule joins to the fiber's tip. Xu believes differently: "First, molecules of the tau protein cluster together into spheres, each almost the same size. Next, the spheres join together in linear chains like beads on a string. In the third stage the beads merge together to form a uniform filament identical to those found in the brains of patients with the disease."

"Shaohua's theory is revolutionary; his evidence is overwhelming. The medical implications are beyond anything in my experience," said advocate Dr Daniel Woodard at KSC, who was the first medical doctor to review Xu's work. "This could be the most important biomedical discovery ever made at Kennedy Space Center," echoed NASA physician David Tipton, chief of the Aerospace Medicine and Environmental Health Branch at KSC.

Editor's Note: Dr. Xu, formerly with the Florida Space Research Institute, has been using atomic force microscopy in the Space Bio-Imaging Lab. He is part of a team of researchers in Florida focusing on biomedical countermeasures for problems associated with long-duration space missions, including bone demineralization, muscle atrophy, and radiation. Solving these spaceflight problems for astronauts can provide additional benefits for patients on Earth. Click here to view the article.

West Virginia Legislature Passes "Bucks for Brains" Legislation (Source: SGPB)
West Virginia became the latest state to initiate a “Bucks for Brains” economic development strategy. The West Virginia program, inspired by programs in other states such as Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kentucky, provides $50 million in state funds for an endowment to assist research at West Virginia and Marshall universities and draw world-class researchers to the state. (4/2)

DOD Programs are Overbudget, Behind Schedule, GAO Says (Source: AIA)
Dozens of the DOD's weapons programs are years behind schedule and billions over budget, according to the Government Accountability Office. A DOD spokesman said the Pentagon is evaluating the GAO's comments. "We'd like to look at what GAO has said, and then at the appropriate time make an informed comment," he said. The GAO said the delays and costs were the result of technologies that are not mature enough to enter production and the length of time required to develop a system. (4/2)

Aerospace Group Pushes for Floor on Defense Spending (Source: AIA)
Members of the Aerospace Industries Association want to see a floor of 4% of GDP spent on defense, AIA President Marion Blakey said. She said a defense treaty between the U.S. and U.K. that could be ratified this spring could allow companies to exchange goods without an export license. "It's a game-changer, the ability for us to work together closely on technologies," Blakey said. Meanwhile, European aerospace and defense companies are being urged to sign an ethics code as part of an effort to improve the industry's reputation. (4/2)

Florida Legislative Update (Source: Florida Today)
A package of bills designed to stimulate Florida space-related jobs and economic growth cleared a key Senate panel Tuesday. Given the job losses that NASA announced Tuesday, "the bills we're doing here are especially timely," Senator Bill Posey said. "We're trying to prepare for an economic Category 6 storm." With the termination of the space shuttle program in 2010, Posey's aide, Russ Cyphers, told the committee, "we're looking at a loss of $600 million in direct wages," which will have a broader impact on hundreds of related businesses, such as restaurants, cleaners, and others that serve space workers.

Among the bills sponsored by Sen. Bill Posey is a measure providing $15 million to refurbish a launch complex at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport (SB 2426). The money is not in the House or Senate budget plans at this point, but sponsors said there's time and much negotiation remaining before the final budgets are settled. Another bill (SB 2666) would extend tax credits currently restricted to defense contractors to include space contractors, another economic incentive. The two other bills establish a trust fund to hold the $15 million safely until it's ready to be used (SB 2458), and encourage cooperation between universities on space-related research and development (SB 2526). (4/2)

Massive Job Cuts in Space Program Likely (Source: AP)
More than 8,000 NASA contractor jobs in the nation's manned space program could be eliminated after the space shuttle program is shut down in 2010, the agency said. The number of civil servants is expected to remain roughly the same, but dramatic job cuts are possible among private contractors as NASA transitions to the Constellation program, which is developing the next-generation vehicle and rockets to go to the moon and later to Mars. Officials cautioned that the estimates of job losses were preliminary and don't take into account numerous factors of potential workload. NASA acknowledged job losses could fluctuate depending on who's occupying the White House next year and their support for space exploration.

The bleakest forecast was issued for Kennedy Space Center, where just 1,600 to 2,300 employees were expected to remain in 2011, a cut of up to 80 percent from its current 8,000 contractor workers. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said the state was committed to trying to blunt the impact of the job losses with an aggressive effort to lure new contractors to the area that would work with future NASA flights, as well as private launches. In all, he said the state was trying to attract more than 50 space-related firms to the state. "This rapid shift is opening doors for new companies and technologies that are blurring the previous separations between aviation and spaceflight," Crist said. (4/1)

Embry-Riddle Event Will Promote Aerospace Among K-12 Girls (Source: ERAU)
Women in Aviation Day will bring 400+ female students from grades 6-8 to Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus on April 15. All Volusia County middle schools will be participating. The young women attending have been selected to participate in this event because of their outstanding grade point averages and accomplishments in math and science. Many of these students have already shown an interest in entering the aviation/aerospace industry. (4/1)

Senator Martinez Releases Statement on NASA Job Loss Estimates (Source: Sen. Martinez)
U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) issued the following statement in response to the release of NASA’s Workforce Transition Strategy Initial Report, detailing the loss of as many as 6,400 jobs between now and FY-2011 at Kennedy Space Center.

"There is no simple fix to this problem, but we know where to focus our efforts. We need to accelerate the Orion and Ares programs, we need to foster a competitive environment for commercial space operations, and we need to assist the individuals and businesses affected by the transition. The aerospace industry is critical for our state and our country. This is more than a huge economic threat to our region; there is the real potential for a larger loss of human capital for our country at a time when we can’t afford to lose those who’ve dedicated their lives to specializing in engineering and science.” (4/2)