May 11 News Items

Spain to Buy Imaging Satellite from EADS-CASA, Astrium (Source: Space News)
The Spanish government, which has been a longtime junior partner to France in developing optical reconnaissance satellites, has agreed to purchase a medium-resolution spacecraft from EADS-CASA and Astrium Satellites as part of its own civil-military national space program. The contract for the satellite, to be called Ingenio, is expected to be valued at 115 million euros ($177 million). Procurement management has been delegated to the 17-nation European Space Agency (ESA) in an unusual relationship given that only Spanish money is being used to finance the project. (5/11)

NASA Marks Ares Progress, Could Delay Orion Review (Source: Space News)
Even as it faced the possibility of delaying by two months, to November, the critical design review of its Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, NASA reached two milestones on its Ares launcher program: the completion of an initial round of tests of the J-2X upper-stage engine and the selection of a contractor to build the mobile launch platform. The Orion project has been analyzing system design requirements since an initial architecture was established in November 2007, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said May 9. "NASA believes it may be of value to give the design team additional time to further mature this analysis and prepare the required products for Orion's preliminary design review," she said. (5/9)

Canadian Subsidiary Buys L-3 Unit (Source: Space News)
Com Dev USA closed its purchase of L-3 Communications Corp.'s passive microwave devices business May 9 following approval by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, which regulates the purchase of U.S. firms by overseas buyers. Com Dev USA of El Segundo, Calif., a subsidiary of Com Dev International of Ontario, Canada, paid $12.2 million for the L-3 unit, which produces circuit components and related products used on commercial and government satellites and for ground applications. (5/11)

Editorial: NASA's Next Boondoggle Always Best (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Six years after finishing the space station, NASA plans to retire it. Having gotten a whiff of the moon, NASA can't abandon its orbiting boondoggle fast It will stop shuttle flights as soon as station construction is completed in 2010. The money for all that grandiose research we were promised is heading for the moon. Billion-dollar, next-generation experiments intended for the station are being left on Earth.

Without the shuttle, we will be at the Russians' mercy in getting to the station for at least five years, when its successor rocket may or may not be ready to fly. We will be hard-pressed to maintain this Tinkertoy, or to bring experiments up and back for analysis. Whereas once we were sold dreams of cancer cures, now we'll be lucky to get weightless gerbil sex up there. For the few precious years the facility will be of any use, we may hardly be able to use it.

It is the same old NASA game of spending as much money as possible as quickly as possible. So when things go wrong with the new plan, when the new Ares 1 launcher vibrates like a tuning fork, as now seems to be the case, you can't turn back because there are too many jobs in too many congressional districts depending on it. Visit http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-miket1108may11,0,995216.column to view the article. (5/11)

Florida Launch Industry Increasingly at Risk (Source: Florida Trend)
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. is the kind of commercial space venture Florida officials hope to lure to fill the void when the space shuttle program ends in 2010. But in February, after winning a coveted NASA contract to deliver cargo to the Space Station, the company announced plans to bypass Florida’s spaceport and instead launch its unmanned Taurus II rockets from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital Sciences’ choice showed how quickly the launch business is becoming a commodity where the low-cost bidder is likely to prevail. Meanwhile, SpaceX likes Florida’s strong workforce and secure location, but the company was forced to delay the launch of its SpaceX rocket after security negotiations dragged on.

In addition to Florida, California and Virginia, states such as New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Alaska all are vying for a piece of the launch business. More countries are also offering launch capabilities, marketing themselves as low-cost alternatives for the growing number of private firms placing satellites, cargo and tourists into space. “The launch business has been ours to lose, and we’re doing a pretty good job losing it,” says state Sen. Bill Posey (R-Rockledge), a board member of the state’s public/private industry support group Space Florida.

One persistent conundrum: The Cape Canaveral Spaceport’s infrastructure is a vital element in Florida’s bid for launch business. But the state has little control over launch facilities there. Posey and others criticize the Department of Defense, which controls the airspace over the Cape Canaveral region, for failing to embrace the private launch business. Red tape is thick, regulatory hurdles high, Posey and others complain. Click here to view the article. (5/11)

University of Wisconsin Team Soars to Grand Prize in NASA Contest (Source: Capital Times)
A team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison earned grand prize honors in the 2008 NASA Means Business competition. The annual competition, sponsored by NASA and the Coalition for Space Exploration, enlists college students to help NASA with promotional ideas. This year, participating teams were challenged to develop a program to help NASA share the innovation and technologies it creates to spur developments in research and commerce. The goal was to increase awareness that the nation's investment in spaceflight technologies can be used in a variety of fields beyond NASA. (Editor's Note: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University won this competition last year.) (5/11)

NASA Life-Hunter Closes In on Mars (Source: Times of London)
A spaceship capable of detecting the first signs of life on Mars was this weekend being prepared for the final course corrections before its touchdown on the red planet. NASA’s Mars Phoenix lander has travelled 420 million miles and now has just 2 million miles and a few final course adjustments to go before it reaches Vastitas Borealis near the Martian north pole on May 25. The site was chosen after months of careful prospecting by spacecraft such as Mars Odyssey, which used a gamma ray spectrometer to see if there was water underneath. (5/11)