May 25 News Items

Phoenix Lands Intact on Mars (Source: San Francisco Chronicle)
The spacecraft Phoenix landed successfully today on the icy northern plains of Mars after a triumphant voyage of 422 million miles half-way around the sun. With a 130-pound cargo of instruments and a robotic digging arm to probe for ancient water and ice and long-decayed traces of organic chemicals essential for life, the lander's three legs settled gently onto a rock-free Martian surface precisely at 4:38 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time. But because the planet is now 171 million miles away, it took 15 minutes at the speed of light for the first faint radio signal of success to reach here at 4:53 p.m., relayed from Mars Odyssey, the orbiter flying high above the landing site. (5/25)

Discovery Passes Final Review for May 31 Launch (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
NASA managers Monday cleared the shuttle Discovery for launch May 31 on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver and attach Japan's huge Kibo laboratory module to the international space station. The decision to proceed came after a lengthy discussion on the health of the station's Soyuz lifeboat after back-to-back re-entry problems that led to rough, off-course landings. (5/19)

Spaceflight Inspires Nation, Aldrin Says (Source: Columbia Tribune)
America’s space program is in an important transition period, and its next accomplishment should take humans to Mars. That’s the hope of the second man to walk on the moon. "I think most of us involved in the space program realize that continuing to do the same thing at the moon in Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 did not hold all that much appeal to the public," Aldrin said. (5/25)

One of the Last Von Braun Rocket Team Members Dies (Source: SpaceRef.com)
Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger, one of the last surviving members of the 126 German rocket scientists brought over to the United States after world war II has passed away quietly in Huntsville Alabama. Dr. Stuhlinger was 94 years old. In 1943, he joined Dr. Wernher von Braun's team at the German village of Peenemuende, where he worked in the field of guidance systems. On April 14, 1955, he became a naturalized United States citizen. (5/25)

China to Launch Second Olympic Weather Forecasting Satellite on May 27 (Source: Xinhua)
China will launch a second Olympic weather forecasting satellite, the Fengyun-3 (FY-3), on May 27. The new satellite will provide accurate and timely information about weather changes to facilitate more precise weather forecasts during the Beijing Olympic Games set to open on Aug. 8. The new satellite, with a bigger payload, would provide medium-range weather forecasts up to 10 to 15 days. (5/25)

Spaceport Tax: What's In It For Us? (Source: Alamagordo Daily News)
Recently the Alamogordo Daily News published two articles on the spaceport tax, each having a lot of quotes from the spaceport director regarding why Otero County voters should pass this tax. Unfortunately, other than a veiled threat that if it wasn't passed then Otero County would not get any benefits; and a vague reference to increased tourism coming to southern New Mexico and consequently (maybe) Otero County; there was not a single reference to what the true benefits are to Otero County. Not one. Sure New Mexico will benefit, sure Doña Ana and Sierra counties will benefit. But what jobs will be created here, what money will be spent here? If you want us to give you money then we need to know what we will get in return. This isn't a grab bag: pay your money, get your bag, then open it to see what you bought. (5/25)

Mars Lander Built In Colorado (Source: The Denver Channel)
After the spacecraft was built at the Jefferson County facility, it was trucked to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora where it was put aboard a cargo jet that flew it to Florida for launch. "Back when we bid this mission with the University of Arizona and JPL, we knew it had inherent risk. We also knew the potential rewards could far out weigh these risks,” said Jim Crocker, vice president of Sensing & Exploration Systems at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. (5/24)

Earthquakes Are Best Predicted from Space (Source:RIA Novosti)
China's deadly earthquake in the Sichuan province has again showed that ground-based earthquake prediction methods and systems are not reliable. Traditional seismology does its best, sometimes succeeding, but more often only saying something like, "California will be destroyed in the next 30 years." Remote sensing from space can provide more accurate data about locations, and even dates of expected disasters. The main advantage of this high-tech method is the ability to survey huge territories for seismically hazardous areas and predict earthquakes one to five days before the disaster.

The Russian method is based on the study of geomagnetic field variations, which induce currents in the Earth. Therefore, surface field measurements can detect the hypothetical regional changes that precede earthquakes. At the same time, intensive electric fields in places where earthquakes are brewing induce specific currents in the ionosphere. Visit http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080523/108209892.html to view the article. (5/24)

United Launch Alliance Exceeds Boeing, Lockheed Expectations (Source: Florida Today)
The year-old merger of engineering, manufacturing, launching and support operations for Boeing's Delta fleet and Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Atlas fleet is experiencing some challenges, but none that Chief Executive Officer Michael Gass said will prevent United Launch Alliance from succeeding. We delivered a proposal that exceeded the savings," Gass said in a recent interview when asked about a report the company was required to file with the Defense Department. Now, the numbers and assumptions used to back up the company's plan to trim the cost of operating the launch vehicles are being scrutinized by auditors inside the Defense Department and at the Government Accountability Office. Visit http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080525/BUSINESS/805250327/1003/business to view the article. (5/24)

Launch Team Packs Rockets' Timetable, Extending Delta 2 Operations (Source: Florida Today)
United Launch Alliance piled up a half-dozen new payloads for Atlas and Delta rockets during the first half of the year, including a NASA moon mission that will extend Delta 2 launch operations. Coming amid a drop in demand for medium-size rockets, the NASA mission will blast off in 2011 -- the year after ULA flies out previously scheduled Delta 2 launches. That's good news for technicians, engineers, managers and others who keep the workhorse rocket flying.
(5/24)

Washington U. Has Big Role in Phoenix Mars Lander (Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
A team of Washington University researchers and students has been sleeping in late to adjust to time on Mars in preparation for Sunday evening, when the Phoenix Mars Lander is expected to touch down. Raymond Arvidson, chairman of Washington U.'s earth and planetary sciences department, along with one graduate and three undergraduate students, have been in Tuscon, Ariz., since the middle of the week, getting up to speed with computer software and making other last minute arrangements. They plan to remain at the University of Arizona's command center for the next 90 days or so until the mission is complete. (5/24)

Russia Launches Relay Craft, Commemorative Satellite (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Russia launched four satellites aboard a Rockot booster from the country's northern spaceport Friday. The 95-foot-tall rocket, capped with a Breeze KM upper stage, lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome . The converted ballistic missile deployed the four payloads into a 900-mile-high orbit less than two hours later. Friday's launch was the first flight of a Breeze upper stage since March, when a similar stage used on the Proton rocket failed and stranded a U.S. communications satellite in a useless orbit. The owners of the AMC 14 satellite declared the craft a total loss to redeem a $150 million insurance payout. (5/24)

Members of Congress Giving Free KSC Tickets to Constituents (Source: Florida Today)
Congressional aides are hooking up tourists from their hometowns with free tickets to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. From the discussion threads on one website devoted to Disney lovers, they're passing them out like candy. At least two separate threads are focused on discussing how to get tickets from their U.S. Representatives and Senators, with feedback on their various success and failure. One Missouri resident credits his congressman, Republican Rep. Roy Blunt, with getting their family tickets. Another thanks Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon while another name checks Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan.

Those tickets aren't supposed to be passed out to any tourist who wants them, said Allard Beutel, a spokesman for NASA. They’re supposed to be given to members of Congress, visiting dignitaries, aides and other VIPs that NASA would like to get a better working knowledge of what goes on at Cape Canaveral. "To be perfectly blunt, you are trying to make sure that whoever getting that info is someone who’s voting on your programs," he said. (5/24)

Two States Boost Incentives for Future Spaceport Work (Source: Space News)
The two states vying to become the primary launch site for Orbital Sciences Corp.'s planned Taurus 2 rocket are sinking money into infrastructure and creating tax incentives in an effort to boost their chances of bringing new business to their respective spaceports. Gaining Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Va., as a launch customer would be a boon for Virginia or Florida. Both states are trying to capitalize on the anticipated growth in the emerging commercial launch market, including new opportunities such as transporting people and supplies to and from the international space station and other destinations in low Earth orbit.

Florida's space authority, Space Florida, is turning to the commercial launch industry to help mitigate the expected employment and economic losses that will occur as NASA retires the space shuttle fleet in 2010. The agency's three remaining orbiters have been a major source of jobs at Cape Canaveral. Meanwhile the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority plans to expand the economy in the Wallops Island region, which provides jobs on the Eastern shore of both Virginia and Maryland. Visit http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacenews_summary.html to view the article. (5/25)

Griffin Says Tough Time Ahead for NASA (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin warned a Washington audience of tough times ahead for the U.S. space program, saying it was likely Congress would adjourn this year without approving the space agency's 2009 budget request. He said part of the problem facing NASA is that the U.S. is getting ready to elect a new president in November who might have different priorities. "There will be changes in priorities," Griffin said, noting that it is a near certainty that for at least part of the 2009 budget year that begins Oct. 1, NASA will be forced to make due with a $17.3 billion annual budget level, the same amount it received for 2008. "The question is whether it will be for six months or a full year," he said.

Griffin said any time Congress passes a continuing resolution that holds agencies to their current spending levels at a time when the economy is experiencing inflation translates into a budget cut. "And so we will be cutting the budget at NASA and the only question is how much," Griffin said, "And then the second question, after how much is decided, is will the continuing resolution be broadly applied and left to the discretion of agency heads to implement or will special programs be targeted to be either favored or disfavored? Those are questions that only Congress can settle." (5/25)

Iridium Weighing a Dozen Hosted Payload Proposals (Source: Space News)
Iridium Satellite LLC is considering about a dozen different proposals for secondary payloads on its next-generation satellite constellation and could end up hosting a payload of up to 50 kilograms on each of the 66 satellites it plans to begin launching around 2013, Iridium Chief Executive Matt Desch said in May 23 interview. Each satellite in Iridium's new communications constellation, called Iridium Next, will weigh between 700 kilograms and 1,000 kilograms, and the company plans to have enough weight margin, power and data handling capacity to accommodate a secondary payload on each one. Lockheed Martin, Space Systems/Loral and Thales Alenia Space are all competing to build the $2.7 billion constellation, with a winner to be selected in July 2009. (5/25)

U.S. Air Force Extends T-Sat Study Contracts (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force has extended competing design studies by Boeing and Lockheed Martin of the proposed Transformational Satellite Communications (T-Sat) system by six months at a cost of up to $75 million each, the service said. The contract extensions are due to the time required for the Office of the Secretary of Defense to complete a reassessment of the program's direction, the Air Force said in a May 22 e-mail response to questions. That study is expected to be completed in June. (5/25)

French Lawmakers Codify Procedures at Spaceport (Source: Space News)
The French parliament on May 22 adopted a law governing space operations that officials said codifies most of the current practice surrounding launches at Europe's Guiana Space Center, which is on French territory. It also makes more formal — but not more strict, officials said — the licensing regime for satellite operators in France or those launching their spacecraft from Europe's spaceport, located near Kourou, French Guiana. "This law gives us a formal legal framework for space operations, which we needed. But the goal was to do this while having no negative effect on launch service suppliers or satellite operators," said Philippe Clerc, head of the legal service at the French space agency, CNES. "I think this was achieved."

A new legal regime was needed in part because Europe's spaceport is about to add new vehicles — Russia's Soyuz and the Italian-led Vega vehicle — to its stable of launchers. Like the current Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, Soyuz and Vega will need to be insured for 60 million euros ($93 million) for third-party liability. For damages above that amount, the French government takes responsibility. In the case of Russia's Soyuz, France shares legal responsibility with the Russian government. For Vega, France assumes one-third of the liability, with the remaining two-thirds divided among the European Space Agency governments participating in Vega's development. (5/25)