June 4 News Items

Rocket Challenge Inspires Students' Interest in Aerospace (Source: AIA)
The aerospace industry is facing a looming shortage of workers, so companies are trying to inspire high-school and middle-school students to enter the field. Students from around the country recently participated in the Team America Rocketry Challenge, which has proved to be an excellent program for inspiring students. Visit http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=4143134n to view a CBS News video on the program. (6/3)

Spaceship Designer Rutan Steps Down as Company President (Source: AP)
Burt Rutan, inventor of the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space, stepped down as president of Scaled Composites LLC. Rutan gave up his day-to-day responsibilities at Scaled, which he founded in 1982. Scaled Vice President Douglas B. Shane was promoted to president, while Rutan will remain at the company as chief technology officer and chairman emeritus. Rutan has been recovering from open-heart surgery in February. (6/4)

Embry-Riddle Honored for Implementing Satellite-Based Aircraft Traffic System (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is among the winners of the 2007 Collier Trophy, awarded to a team of organizations that collaborated to develop the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system, a new satellite-based technology that promises to greatly improve the safety, capacity and efficiency of the national airspace system. Embry-Riddle pioneered the implementation and testing of ADS-B in its aircraft. The flight training fleets at its campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., are fully equipped with the new technology. Past recipients have included Orville Wright, Chuck Yeager, the Apollo 11 crew, Burt Rutan, and the developers of GPS. (6/4)

Senate Committee Chairman Proposes New DOD Cost Evaluation Office (Source: AIA)
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., will propose creating a new DOD office that would estimate the cost of new military programs before they are approved. Under Levin's proposal, the new cost estimation chief would have authority equal to the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation. (6/3)

Military Will Require More Commercial Satellites, Officials Say (Source: AIA)
Top officials expect the military's demand for commercial satellites services to continue to climb in coming years. "The number is going up and it's going up at a much higher rate than what we expect to be able to achieve with our military satellite communications," said Joseph Rouge, who heads the DOD's National Security Space Office. (6/4)