September 9 News Items

TacSat 3 to Launch in October From Virginia Spaceport (Source: Spaceports Blog)
Tactical Satellite-3's scheduled October mission is set to demonstrate rapid data collection and transmission to the combatant commander in the theater of interest, according to the US Air Force. The TacSat-3 launch will occur from the Virginia-owned Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, on Wallops Island, Va. This will be the third orbital launch from the commercial spaceport in recent months. (9/9)

Google and HSBC Back Satellite Internet Project (Source: Reuters)
Internet firm Google and Europe's biggest bank HSBC have thrown their weight behind a plan to provide cheap, high-speed Web access via satellite to millions in Africa and other emerging markets. Google has joined forces with the bank and cable operator Liberty Global to back a group called O3b Networks, which stands for the "other 3 billion" people who do not have access. It will provide high-speed backhaul for telecoms operators and Internet providers, which can then sell services to businesses and consumers. (9/9)

Sen. Dodd Asks for Fair Play in Space Suit Deal (Source: Portfolio)
Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd is urging NASA to get it right as it reviews bids for the next generation space suit. Connecticut-based aerospace manufacturer Hamilton Sundstrand is one of the bidders as a partner of joint venture Exploration Systems & Technology. Dodd praised the company for its work making early space suits. NASA selected Houston-based Oceaneering International Inc. in June, but terminated the contract last month. NASA says it had to re-examine the cost proposals of the two bidders and asked that protests by Exploration Systems & Technology be dismissed. Dodd told NASA Administrator Michael Griffin in a letter that he will be watching to make sure the process for picking a contractor is unbiased. (9/9)

SpaceX Launches DragonLab for Recoverable Scientific Payload Service (Source: Flight Global)
SpaceX is offering its Dragon capsule as a recoverable science cargo spacecraft with a first commercial flight target of 2010. With the ability to return up to 3,000kg (6,600lb) of payload to Earth, SpaceX envisages that uses for its "DragonLab" will include instruments and sensor testing, radio and microgravity research, Earth observation and space environment and materials studies. With flights lasting from a week to two years Dragon has a sizeable science payload volume capacity for experiments that need to be pressurized of unpressurized. (9/9)

Florida International University Among Winners of NASA Education Research Grants (Source: NASA)
NASA's Office of Education is awarding research grants totaling nearly $35 million to seven minority institutions, including Florida International University for a project titled: WaterSCAPES: Science of Coupled Aquatic Processes in Ecosystems from Space. The goal of NASA's Minority University Research and Education Program is to establish significant, multi-disciplinary scientific, engineering and commercial research centers that contribute substantially to NASA programs. Each university will receive up to $1 million per year for a maximum of five years based on performance and availability of funds. (9/9)

California State University Among Winners of NASA Education Research Grants (Source: NASA)
NASA's Office of Education is awarding research grants totaling nearly $35 million to seven minority institutions, including California State University. The goal of NASA's Minority University Research and Education Program is to establish significant, multi-disciplinary scientific, engineering and commercial research centers that contribute substantially to NASA programs. Each university will receive up to $1 million per year for a maximum of five years based on performance and availability of funds. (9/9)

LeGall: Launch Prices To Slowly Rise Despite Abundant Capacity (Source: Space News)
The head of the world's most active commercial launch provider said Sept. 9 that launch prices will continue to rise, but more slowly, in the near term despite what he said is a market with too much launch capacity. (9/9)

Shuttle Can Fly After 2010 (Source: Aerospace Daily)
NASA's space shuttle program can continue to fly beyond its current scheduled retirement date at the end of 2010, probably with only a minimal effect on development of the first of its follow-on U.S. human spaceflight vehicles, if Congress appropriates enough money for both activities, NASA's shuttle manager says. "What I would tell you is we haven't reached the point yet of no return," John Shannon, NASA's space shuttle program manager, said Sept. 8. Shannon's remarks contradict those of his predecessor, Wayne Hale, who said in an earlier open letter to NASA managers that the "horse has left the barn" because the agency has been shutting down long-lead shuttle-component production lines for the past four years.

Ultimately the question will be resolved in a detailed white paper the shuttle program is preparing in conjunction with NASA's International Space Station and Constellation programs, Shannon said. "The study is really to prepare for what we anticipate would be potential questions from an incoming administration or incoming new members of Congress," he said during a preflight briefing on the upcoming STS-125 shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. (9/9)

New NASA Space Experiment Rack to Undergo Flight Tests with Zero-G (Source: NASA)
A new space experiment rack under development by Kennedy Space Center and Space Florida will undergo initial tests this week. The rack will fly aboard NASA's first commercially-provided research flights on Zero Gravity Corporation's reduced gravity aircraft. Flight testing of the FASTRACK Space Experiment Platform will be performed on four consecutive days between September 9-12 from Ellington Field near NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston.

The apparatus is designed to accommodate two standard lockers (or one double locker) that fit inside the space shuttle's crew middeck. In addition to Zero-G's aircraft, it is being developed to facilitate NASA and commercial use of reusable U.S. suborbital flight vehicles currently under development, and as a testbed for experiments aboard the International Space Station. Three projects will be aboard the first FASTRACK flight, including instrumentation to measure FASTRACK's microgravity environment, a fluid dynamics experiment from the University of Central Florida, and tests of a biomedical sensor for non-invasive monitoring of human hemodynamics, or the movement of blood, during changes in gravity. (9/9)

China's Rulers Llook to Space to Maintain Olympic Pride (Source: AFP)
China's rulers are looking to catapult overflowing pride and patriotism from the Beijing Olympics into another stratosphere when the nation's first "taikonaut" walks in space this month. Amid high inflation and other economic concerns, analysts say China's space programme offers the communist leadership an important platform to maintain a popularity boost given to them by staging a successful Olympics. "China's space program reflects the power and legitimacy of the Communist Party," said Morris Jones, an Australian space analyst and writer who has closely studied China's space efforts. (9/9)

UConn Research Could Help Build Elevator To Space (Source: Courant)
An elevator that leads into space might sound farfetched, but scientists have been seriously considering it for years — and work at the University of Connecticut could end up being a key part of it actually happening. UConn chemistry professor Fotios Papadimitrakopoulos, 43, believes he and his team of researchers have found a way to harness the potential of nanotubes — an extremely strong material made from carbon molecules. Their work was recently published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Sang-Yong Ju, a doctoral candidate in polymer science, is the lead author. If the researchers are right about the potential of their work, it could lead to practical applications for everything from new drug delivery systems to better tennis rackets. And, yes, a space elevator. It's an idea that's been around for more than a century, but never seriously considered until recent breakthroughs in nanotube technology. (9/9)