May 16 News Items

House Approves Sherman-Manzullo Bill to Modernize Export Controls (Source: CSA)
The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation co-authored by Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) that would modernize the federal government’s inefficient export control policy by strengthening national security and helping American companies sell more defense-related goods and services overseas to our allies. Sponsored by Manzullo and Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA), Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), the Defense Trade Controls Performance Improvement Act of 2007 (H.R. 4246), as amended, became Subtitle A of Title I of the Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Reform Act of 2008 (H.R. 5916), a broader international security assistance bill approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee last month. (5/15)

Job Situation at KSC Difficult to Predict (Source: Florida Today)
The November election likely will determine how many Kennedy Space Center workers keep their jobs after the end of the shuttle program in 2010, United Space Alliance's former CEO said. "It's too dependent on the next president, the election. There are too many things out there," Michael McCulley said during a speech before the National Space Club. The next president won't be able to continue the shuttle with huge budget increases, and he or she could decide to cut back on President Bush's vision for returning to the moon. USA is the prime contractor for the shuttle and employs 6,200 at KSC, more than 40 percent of the center's work force of about 14,000. USA might be able to land a good portion of the shuttle decommissioning work. (5/14)

Melbourne Aerospace Growth Aids Workforce Situation (Source: ERAU)
Recent announcements that Northrop Grumman and Brazil's Embraer plan to expand their aerospace business in Melbourne could be good news for some space industry workers facing layoffs at the nearby Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Northrop Grumman plans to add 300 people to its Melbourne workforce for a new J-Stars military aircraft program. Meanwhile, Embraer has announced plans to develop their first U.S. aircraft manufacturing and customer design facility in Melbourne that will bring 200 new jobs. Overall direct job loss numbers with the Space Shuttle retirement could top 6,400. (5/16)

NASA Extends Space Station Contract With ARES Corp. (Source: NASA)
NASA awarded ARES Corp. a one-year contract extension valued at $25.7 million for services required to continue the development and operation of the International Space Station. ARES Corp. has held the station's program integration and control contract since January 2004. The one-year extension brings the total value of the contract to $151.8 million. ARES provides integrated vehicle performance and risk management, configuration and schedule management, information technology management, resource analysis, and cost estimating services. Major subcontractors include Booz Allen Hamilton and Barrios Technology. (5/16)

Lockheed Wins GPS 3 Contract (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Lockheed Martin has won a contract worth nearly $1.5 billion to develop the first block of next-generation GPS satellites. The Air Force awarded Boeing the $1.46-billion contract for the first two GPS Block 3A satellites on Thursday, with options to build up to 10 more for an additional $2 billion. Lockheed beat out a bid from rival Boeing; both companies have won contracts for GPS satellites in the past. The GPS 3 satellites, scheduled to begin launching in 2014, will feature additional signals to improve accuracy as well as antijamming measures. (5/16)

GPS Contract Will Add 400 Jobs to Lockheed Martin's Pennsylvania Plant (Source: Philadelphia Business Journal)
Lockheed Martin said winning the new GPS-3 contract will mean the addition of 500 jobs, including 400 at the company's Newtown, Pa. site. Other members of the Lockheed Martin team include ITT Corp. and General Dynamics Corp. (5/16)

Astronomers Mystified by 'Weird' Star (Source: AFP)
Astronomers are puzzled by the discovery of a pulsar with an unusual orbit never before seen in similar fast-spinning neutron stars that beam regular pulses of radio waves. Pulsars usually have a circular orbit around white dwarf stars, but the newly found object travels in an oval, or "eccentric," motion around a sun-like star. (5/16)

SpaceX Targets Late June for Next Rocket Launch Attempt (Source: Space.com)
The third time may be a charm, but even if it is not SpaceX's founder says he is committed to the launch business and now regrets having said two years ago that he probably would have only three chances to launch his Falcon 1 rocket successfully. With a backlog of 12 launches on the manifest through 2011 and a newly inked launch services agreement with NASA potentially worth $1 billion, the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company actually managed to add new customers to its roster since the March 2007 launch attempt left the Falcon 1 with an 0-2 record. (5/16)

$2.5M Endowment is Inducement for Arizona Space Faculty (Source: Arizona Daily Star)
Thanks to a $2.5 million donation, the lead scientist on NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission is ensured to remain at the University of Arizona for at least five more years. UA senior researcher Peter H. Smith was named Thursday as the university's first Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Chair in Integrative Science. The post will rotate every five years to reward top faculty for "transformational achievements" in their respective fields. (5/16)

University of Colorado Scientists to Build $34 Million Satellite (Source: Daily Camera)
Scientists at the University of Colorado will start building a $34 million instrument that will fly on a NASA satellite in 2013 to measure the quality of light coming from the sun. The instrument will be built by CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, which has a 30-year track record of measuring solar radiation from orbiting satellites. Measuring the sun's radiation -- which we can feel, at least at the longer wave lengths -- isn't that easy when you're standing on the Earth. That's because the sun's rays are scattered, absorbed and reflected by molecules in the atmosphere long before they reach street-level monitoring instruments. (5/16)

University of California Davis Awaits Next Solar Cycle With New Telescope (Source: California Aggie)
Although many would groan at the thought of power outages and horrible reception, astrophysicists and physicists at UC Davis are excited because it means the chance to observe the beginning of another solar cycle. The first sign of Solar Cycle 24 appeared on Jan. 4, as a reversed-polarity sunspot on the sun. It marks the end of the solar minimum of Solar Cycle 23. Solar cycles, also known as solar magnetic activity cycles, are the fluctuations of solar energy activity on the sun. Solar activity occurs on average every 11.1 years. Unlike in previous years, UC Davis is prepared to observe and study this upcoming solar cycle with its new telescope and solar filter. (5/16)

Hubble Delays Test Flight of Ares Rocket (Source: Florida Today)
A five-week slip in NASA's final Hubble Space Telescope servicing call will trigger a mirror-image delay in the first test flight of a new Ares 1 moon rocket. The $320 million Ares 1X test flight had been slated to lift off from Kennedy Space Center on April 15. But launch of Atlantis and a Hubble repair crew faces a delay to Oct. 3 from Aug. 28, which will push the test flight to late next May. The two missions are inextricably linked. NASA aims to have Endeavour on pad 39B ready for a rapid-response rescue mission if Atlantis is seriously damaged when the Hubble crew blasts off from nearby pad 39A. (5/16)

Russian Astronaut May Be Taken Off Space Station Flight (Source: Red Orbit)
Russia astronaut Salizhan Sharipov may be taken off the flight to the Space Station in October 2008. "Salizhan Sharipov, the commander of the main crew of the next mission to the ISS, has been temporarily barred from training for the flight by Cosmonaut Training Center doctors," a source said. The source said the decision made because of the astronaut's health. (5/14)

DishTV to Launch Captive Satellite by June-End (Source: Business Standard)
DishTV is all set to extend its satellite channel capacity to 420 with the launch of its own satellite Argani scheduled by the end of June this year. Once operational, the satellite would also enable DishTV to provide broadband internet service to its subscribers. DishTV, which has offered a free-of-cost set top box (STB) to all new subscribers, is looking at doubling its customer base of 310,000 in next 45 days. The company's plan to double customer base comes ahead of its satellite project being handled by Chinese satellite company ProtoStar. (5/16)

Congress Aims to Set NASA's Agenda (Source: Florida Today)
The top two lawmakers on a House science and technology committee have introduced a bill that would reauthorize NASA. Rep. Mark Udall, the Colorado Democrat who chairs the panel’s space and aeronautics subcommittee, sponsored the bill along with the panel’s top Republican, Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida. Udall said the legislation is intended to provide the next presidential administration some guidance on NASA. “Without a clear statement of congressional priorities and policies for the nation’s civil space and aeronautics enterprise, we run the risk of w in a statement issued today. (5/16)

Cause Of Proton Failure Confirmed (Source: Aviation Week)
International Launch Services (ILS) says an independent review of the cause of a Proton failure in early April concurs with the findings of a report issued by the Russian State Commission earlier this month. The State Commission blamed the mishap on a ruptured exhaust gas duct that caused the breeze M upper stage engine turbopump to shut down prematurely, leaving its payload stranded in useless orbit. Prime contractor Khrunichev is running additional analyses and tests of the Breeze M engine. These activities are expected to be completed by mid-June, when the failure review board will meet again in Moscow to determine whether the Proton can return to flight. (5/15)

Hutchison May be Key to Extra NASA Funds (Sources: Houston Chronicle, Space Politics)
Members of Houston's congressional delegation, having failed to galvanize House support for additional NASA funding, said Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was their last best hope for adding $2 billion in emergency aid. Houston-area lawmakers — including Reps. John Culberson, R-Houston, Gene Green, D-Houston, and Nick Lampson, D-Stafford — said they were counting on the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which Hutchison serves, after the House leadership spurned their request. Hutchison, R-Texas, is hoping to attach the NASA money to the emergency war supplemental spending bill making its way through Congress.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post editorial decried the Senate’s addition of “pet projects” to the supplemental, citing specifically “such goodies as $200 million for the space shuttle” in the Senate version, while praising the House for keeping such provisions out of its version. “If this counts as emergency spending,” the editorial concluded, “it’s hard to imagine what budget-busting expenditures would not qualify.” (5/13)

Caltech Helps Open the Universe in Microsoft "WorldWide Telescope" (Source: Caltech)
Panoramic images of the sky obtained at Palomar Observatory and by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), plus pointed observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope, form a significant part of the "World Wide Telescope" (WWT), a new product released today by Microsoft aimed at bringing exploration of the Universe and its many wonders to the general public. WorldWide Telescope is a rich Web application that combines imagery from the best ground- and space-based observatories across the world, stitching together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies and displaying them in a way that relates to their actual relative position in the sky.

Using their own computers, people from all walks of life can freely browse through the solar system, galaxy, and beyond. They can choose which telescope they want to look through, including NASA's Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer Telescopes, to view the locations of planets in the night sky--in the past, present or future--and the universe through different wavelengths of light to reveal hidden structures in other parts of the galaxy. Taken as a whole, the application provides a top-to-bottom view of the science of astronomy. (5/12)

Intelsat Says Market Remains Robust (Source: Space News)
Satellite-fleet operator Intelsat said May 15 that demand for satellite capacity continues to grow in most places around the world except the Asia-Pacific region. The company reported that revenue for the three months ending March 31 grew by 11 percent over the same period last year, to $572.7 million, and 13 percent if its declining point-to-point telecom-trunking business is excluded. (5/16)

Emerging Markets Drive Eutelsat Sales (Source: Space News)
Satellite-fleet operator Eutelsat recorded an 8.9 percent increase in revenue for the three months ending March 31 compared to the same period a year ago, with growth particularly strong in the satellite-television markets in Russia, Africa, Turkey and the Middle East, the company reported May 15. (5/16)

SES Americom Satellite to Carry DOD Missile-Warning Experiment (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force plans to award a sole-source contract to the government services division of commercial satellite operator SES Americom to host an experimental missile-warning sensor aboard one of its planned geostationary-orbiting telecommunications satellites. The pending deal with Americom Government Services would involve placing an infrared sensor built by SAIC aboard a communications satellite built by Orbital Sciences Corp., according to several industry sources familiar with the negotiations. (5/16)

Navy Eyes Commercial Satellites to Avoid UHF Gap (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Navy hopes to place a military payload aboard a commercial communications satellite to avoid any potential gaps in the UHF satellite communication services it provides to senior government leaders and mobile forces around the world. The Navy is planning to begin a competition this summer for the hosted payload, and is eyeing a first launch in 2011. The Navy plans to award a single contract in November. (5/16)

House Panel Gives T-Sat Full Request; Senate Exceeds It (Source: Space News)
The House Armed Services Committee recommended fully funding the Air Force's Transformational Satellite (T-Sat) communications system for 2009, several weeks after its Senate counterpart recommended adding $350 million to the president's budget request for the program. In its mark-up of the 2009 defense authorization bill, the House committee fully funded each of the major Air Force space programs at the levels requested by U.S. President George W. Bush, including $843 million for T-Sat. (5/16)

Ala. Firm To Build Attitude Controls for Bigelow Craft (Source: Space News)
Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, LLC has awarded Orion Propulsion Inc. of Madison, Ala., a $4.8 million contract to design and build an attitude control system for the Sundancer commercial space habitat Bigelow hopes to deploy in 2010. (5/16)

House Bill Would Authorize Additional Shuttle Flights (Sources: Space News, ERAU)
House lawmakers introduced legislation May 15 authorizing three additional space shuttle flights before the fleet's scheduled 2010 retirement, including the launch of a science probe removed from the manifest after the 2003 Columbia accident. the bill seeks $1 billion to accelerate NASA's space shuttle replacement vehicles: the Orion crew capsule and Ares 1 rocket. NASA officials have said they could speed development of those vehicles by about two years — to 2013 — with an additional $2 billion. The bill also extends the possibility of U.S. participation in the international space station for four additional years by directing NASA to "take no steps" that would prevent the United States from utilizing the space station after 2016. The bill also includes language directing NASA to work with other agencies and foreign governments toward the development of a space traffic control system (5/16)