October 31 News Items

Vice Presidential Nominee Sen. Biden to Speak at Embry-Riddle (Source: ERAU)
Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Joseph Biden and his wife Jill will be giving a Change We Need speech Sunday night at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona. The event will begin at 7:15 pm, and doors will open at 5 pm. The event is free and open to the public, and the campaign would like to an extend an invitation to the entire ERAU community. No tickets are required. Those interested in attending are requested to rsvp online at http://fl.barackobama.com. (10/31)

Military Brass Confirmed for CSA SpotBeam Awards Event on Nov. 19 (Source: CSA)
Major General William Lord will join already-confirmed General Kehler (Commander, Air Force Space Command), Lt. Gen. Sheridan (Commander, Space and Missile Systems Center), and Colonel Buck (Commander, 30th Space Wing and the Western Range) as an attendee of the SpotBeam Awards Dinner on Nov. 19th. Visit http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/images/events/2008-SBReception.pdf for information, and http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/_spotbeam%20awards/index.html for a list of attendees. (10/31)

2009 Team America Rocketry Challenge Accepting Applications (Source: CSA)
Registration is open for the Team America Rocketry Challenge 2009, a national model rocket competition for U.S. students in grades 7 through 12. Thousands of students compete each year in the Team America Rocketry Challenge, the world’s largest model rocket contest. Cash prizes are awarded to the top finishers. Teams of three to ten students design, build and fly a model rocket to carry one raw egg for a precise flight duration of 45 seconds and to an exact altitude of 750 feet. The team whose rocket comes the closest to both, and brings the egg back unbroken, wins.

To be eligible for the national fly-off, teams must fly a qualifying flight observed by an adult member of the National Association of Rocketry. The top-scoring 100 teams in the country will be invited to participate in the final fly-off to be held in May 2009. Participation is limited to the first 750 teams who register by Dec. 1, 2008. For more information, visit http://www.rocketcontest.org/. (10/31)

NASA Opportunity for Students in Grades 9-12 (Source: CSA)
The Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience (INSPIRE) is a multi-tiered project for students and their parents or legal guardians. Applications from students in grades 9-12 are now being accepted for INSPIRE's online community through Dec. 31, 2008. NASA's mission provides the content for the online community. Resources, activities and educational modules add relevancy to courses being taught in high school. Activities include participation in video teleconferences with NASA scientists, design competitions and learning modules. The online community allows students to interact with other students with similar interests, to ask questions and to share knowledge, thus building a “Community of Practice.” The online community will also offer support for parents to help them better champion their students' goals. Visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/programs/INSPIRE_Project.html for information. (10/31)

NASA Awards Contract for Mission, Crew Operations Support (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded a $206.5 million contract to United Space Alliance of Houston to provide mission and flight crew operations support for the International Space Station and human space exploration activities after the space shuttle is retired. The two-year, 11-month Integrated Mission Operations Contract covers ground-based human spaceflight operations capability development and execution, including support to mission planning and preparation, crew and flight controller training, and real-time mission execution. The contract provides for an optional one-year
extension, which would increase the total value of the contract to $371 million through 2012. (10/31)

Endeavour Slated for Nov. 14 Liftoff (Source: AIA)
Space shuttle Endeavour will return to the International Space Station Nov. 14, NASA announced on Thursday. The Endeavour crew will deliver enough household supplies to allow the ISS to host six residents at a time, up from the current three. With only 10 shuttle flights remaining, NASA said the delayed Hubble mission could be inserted anywhere in the schedule without affecting operations at the space station. (10/31)

Young Calls Pentagon Budget Process "Painful" (Source: AIA)
Pentagon officials are wrestling with "painful" cuts as they prepare a recommended six-year budget for the incoming administration. Acquisitions chief John Young refused to elaborate on specific cuts during a Thursday press conference, but he did name several projects expected to be among the priorities of a new administration, including a new presidential helicopter and the Joint Strike Fighter. (10/31)

SpaceTEC Holds Annual Meeting in Washington (Source: ERAU)
SpaceTEC, the NSF-sponsored center of excellence for aerospace technical training and certification, held a meeting of its partner institutions in Washington DC last week, to coincide with a meeting of the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Council (COMSTAC). College representatives from seven states, and the Community College of the Air Force, participated in the meeting to coordinate their efforts to establish training curricula and certifications for workers in the space launch industry and other aerospace operations not currently covered by the FAA's A&P certification program. (10/31)

McCain: NASA Would Dodge the Budget Axe (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
John McCain said this week that he would exclude NASA from his across-the-board freeze on government spending that he has proposed -- the first time that the Republican presidential nominee has singled out the space agency to be spared. The statement could put to rest longstanding -- and conflicting -- stances by the Arizona senator, who has called for both the freeze and increased support for NASA, which gets roughly $17 billion annually in the federal budget. He has promised to boost NASA funding by $2 billion.

Space policy could be a tipping factor in Florida, where thousands of workers at Kennedy Space Center are likely to lose their jobs once the space shuttle is retired, now planned for 2010. The $2 billion increase in funding proposed by McCain -- and echoed by Democratic nominee Barack Obama -- is targeted at closing the flight gap between the shuttle’s retirement and the first mission of its successor, now under development and slated for a first mission in 2015. (10/31)

Frank Talk About a NASA Budget Increase (Source: SpacePolitics.com)
While both candidates have promised to increase NASA’s budgets, those promises are just that. It will be up to the next Congress to pass budgets that incorporate that additional funding, and at least one key House member is expressing his opposition not just for additional NASA funding, but for current spending levels. In an Oct. 26 debate, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) said he would seek to cut back spending in a number of areas, including human spaceflight. Frank is already infamous in the space community for pushing for measures that would prohibit spending money on human Mars exploration. These latest comments suggest that he might take more aggressive measures in the next Congress to slash NASA funding, particularly for programs like Constellation. (10/31)

Congress Told: Make NTSB Official Space Accident Investigator (Source: Flight Global)
A commercial human spaceflight safety report for Congress has recommended that new legislation should be passed to put the US government's National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) role of lead agency for space vehicle accident investigatons on a legal footing. The NTSB already has agreements with the FAA and the Air Force but its role is not enshrined in law.

Another of the report's conclusions regarding new legislation is that the FAA's regulatory role "is limited to launch and reentry operations. [This] should be corrected in time to address expected commercial orbital ventures." The CSLAA report will be submitted to the relevant US Senate and House of Representatives committees on Dec. 23. The report is not recommending any changes to existing commercial suborbital spaceflight regulations. (10/31)

China's Close Call (Source: Wall Street Journal)
China is justifiably basking in the glow of its first spacewalk, performed on Sep. 27. But another, more serious, story from that mission is only now starting to emerge. With minimal publicity -- let alone notice to any other government -- Beijing's space ship passed unusually close to the International Space Station soon after the spacewalk. The event may offer a window into both China's space-based military aspirations and its willingness to be a good orbital citizen.

The Shenzhou-7 ship passed within 45 kilometers of the International Space Station, according to the U.S. Strategic Command. While the respective orbits ensured they would not collide, there was little margin for error. At that level of low-earth orbit objects travel at about 7.7 kilometers per second, and at that speed an object as small as five millimeters in diameter can inflict serious damage on the $100 billion space station, which at the time had two Russians and one American aboard. (10/31)

Russia Invites Cuba to Join Glonass System (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia has invited Cuba to join its satellite navigation system, Glonass, Russia's communications minister said. Glonass - the Global Navigation Satellite System - is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System and is designed for both military and civilian use. "We are inviting all countries to join the system," Igor Shchegolev said at a news conference. "And, of course, we have invited Cuba." (10/31)

Zenit "LandLaunch" Prepares to Launch U.S. Satellite (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russian space technicians have started preparations for the launch of a Zenit rocket with a U.S. Telstar satellite on board. The Zenit is scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan at the end of December. The Zenit-3SLB is a modernized three-stage version of the Zenit-3SL, which was previously used at Sea Launch's floating platform in the Pacific Ocean. (10/31)

Hubble Mission Reset to April (Source: Baltimore Sun)
NASA officials have again postponed the launch of the shuttle Atlantis on a final mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. The delay, from February to at least May, means astronomers will have to wait three months more before two of Hubble's key scientific instruments can be used again. Engineers told Hubble managers they need more time to inspect and test the 18-year-old hardware that will replace a science data computer that failed on Sept. 27, and to train astronauts and build the tools they need to install it. (10/31)

NASA Studies Constellation Acceleration Options (Source: Flight Global)
Accelerating the Constellation program is the focus of a NASA study that is expected to report its findings in early December. The study is examining how to make the program's plan, up to 2014, "more robust". NASA will look at what it can do to achieve a Ares I crew launch vehicle, Orion crew exploration vehicle (CEV) Sep. 2014 first flight, when Mar. 2015 is the current commitment, what options there are to bring forward that flight date by a year, and what can be done to accelerate it by 18 months. "It is not just Constellation [personnel], we have outside experts looking at the long-range architecture. We will provide [the report] to a future administration [and Congress]," says NASA's Constellation program manager, Jeffrey Hanley. (10/31)

Space Florida Sponsors Zero-G Flight for Florida Teachers (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida is seeking applications from active Florida teachers (all levels), who would like the opportunity to fly on a Zero-G flight from Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 7. In order to complete the application process and be considered, applicants must complete the form on the Space Florida website at: http://spaceflorida.gov/zerog.php and submit a 500-word student microgravity lesson plan on how they plan to share their microgravity research experience in the classroom. The application deadline is COB Nov. 12. A mandatory orientation/workshop will take place on Nov. 22 at KSC for selected teachers. (10/31)

NASA Ames Collaborates to Develop Robotic Lunar Lander (Source: NASA)
NASA Ames Research Center is collaborating with a commercial partner to develop a lunar lander for future low-cost missions to the moon. Under the terms of a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with Odyssey Moon Ventures, NASA Ames will share its small spacecraft technical data and expertise with the company. In return, Odyssey Moon Ventures will reimburse NASA Ames for the cost of providing the technical support and will share its technical data from its engineering tests and actual lunar missions with NASA. The company is headed by Jay Honeycutt, a former director of Kennedy Space Center. Odyssey Moon Ventures LLC is headquartered in Nevada, with offices in Washington DC and Cocoa Beach, Fla. The firm collaborates with Odyssey Moon Limited, a company headquartered in the Isle of Man, with offices in Toronto, Canada, London, and Washington DC. (10/31)

Cabana Assumes Role As Tenth NASA Kennedy Space Center Director (Source: NASA)
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is under new leadership. Robert Cabana assumed the role as the center's tenth director Oct. 26. Cabana, who is a former space shuttle astronaut, came to Kennedy from NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi where he was director for the past year. He succeeds William W. Parsons who left the agency Oct. 11 to pursue opportunities in the private sector. (10/31)

Russia to Aid India on 2nd Mission to Moon (Source: Financial Express)
With Chandrayaan-1 well on its way to moon without any glitch, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has now initiated a dialogue with its Russian counterpart of work-sharing of Chandrayaan-2 which features a lander and a rover. “Conceptual studies are in place. Overall configuration is finalized but the scientific experiments are yet to be finalized. “The lander will be from Russia. The Russian space agency is cooperating with us. The rover will be a joint development between Russia and India. Many of the scientific instruments (payloads on board Chandrayaan-2) will be from India”, said an ISRO official. (10/30)

Alliant Tech Beats Estimates, Raises Outlook (Source: Reuters)
Alliant Techsystems announced that quarterly profit rose 27 percent. The largest supplier of bullets to U.S. armed forces, which also makes missiles and sells rockets to NASA, reported quarterly profit of $65 million, compared with $51 million a year earlier. Sales rose 6 percent to $1.1 billion. (10/30)

Google Lunar X Prize Competitor Plans Series of Moon Landing Missions (Source: Astrobotic)
At a meeting of worldwide Moon exploration experts, Astrobotic Technology unveiled its plans for a series of robotic expeditions to build a lunar data library. “Astrobotic will robotically explore the Moon’s high-interest areas on a commercial basis, collecting information required to design future outposts and to answer scientific questions about the Moon and Earth,” said President David Gump. “Our data library also will point the way to utilizing lunar energy and mineral resources to lower the cost of exploration and eventually supply markets on Earth.”

The company released a White Paper on its data library at the annual combined meeting of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group, the Space Resources Roundtable and the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group. The paper is available on the company’s Web site, www.astrobotictech.com. It invites the world’s space agencies, aerospace corporations, university researchers and industrial firms to outline which data packages are highest priority for them. In addition to building a lunar data library, the company will deliver payloads, perform on-the-Moon services and generate interactive, high-definition media content for television, the Web, science centers and theme parks. (10/30)

Celebrity Astronauts Offer Experiences & Artifacts in Charity Auction (Source: ASF)
They have soared into outer space, performed daring space walks, took giant leaps on the moon and now want to spend time with you! More than 50 celebrity astronauts, including John Glenn, Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin, are offering once-in-a-lifetime one-on-one experiences, cool space artifacts and autographed items in the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation’s (ASF) 6th Annual Online Auction of Astronaut Experiences and Memorabilia at http://astronautscholarship.org/2008_auction.pl which opened on Oct. 31. Now, bidders will have the chance to own a jacket worn in space by a real astronaut, a flown food container from the legendary Apollo 13 flight or a rare NASA 50th anniversary print signed by over 20 space heroes! Other lots up for grabs include lunch with John Glenn, skydiving with 5-time Space Shuttle astronaut Robert Gibson and viewing a Space Shuttle launch with the first shuttle pilot Robert Crippen! (10/31)