November 10 News Items

STS-126 SRB Modification to Provide Ares I Thrust Oscillation Data (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The next Shuttle mission, STS-126, will see the flight debut of two new sets of instrumentation, aimed at gathering more detailed data on RSRM (Reusable Solid Rocket Motor) behaviour during the first stage of launch. The resulting data will benefit the efforts to understand and mitigate Thrust Oscillation on Ares I. The main objective is to record pressure variations inside the boosters at higher fidelity than has been achieved in any previous shuttle flight. (11/10)

SpaceX Could Add 100 Jobs (Source: Florida Today)
A new kind of untested rocket soon will appear on the Cape, ready for its first scheduled flight in the spring. A successful launch could mean more than 100 additional jobs in the space industry, which is threatened by the end of the shuttle program. Measuring 180 feet tall and 12 feet wide, SpaceX's Falcon 9 will have nine newly designed engines and a paying customer for its maiden voyage. The first Falcon 9 is scheduled to arrive late this year and lift off in the spring the Cape Canaveral Spaceport's Launch Complex 40. The pad is being renovated in part with $1 million in funding from Space Florida, the state agency formed to help the space industry.

"Fabrication of the hangar will be complete by the end of November," said Brian Mosdell, SpaceX's director of Florida launch operations. "All major components related to other pad systems, including propellant, pneumatic, hydraulics, video, communications and command and control systems, are in place." SpaceX has grown from 10 employees at the Cape to 35 since February. The company plans to have 150 employees in Florida if the Falcon 9 wins contracts with NASA to resupply the International Space Station. (11/10)

India Plans Astronaut Training Center by 2012 (Source: Flight Global)
An astronaut training center larger than 100 acres, on the outskirts of Bangalore, is to be completed by 2012 in preparation for India's proposed $242 million 2015 manned spaceflight, the nation's first. The center will be set up by the Indian Space Research Organization in collaboration with the Indian air force's Institute of Aviation Medicine, which is also located on the outskirts of Bangalore. Among the astronaut facilities planned are a centrifuge and spacecraft simulator. ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair says that India's proposed human spaceflight program will be a home-grown endeavour. "We do not have any proposal for co-operation with other countries. However, we are not averse to it," he says. (11/10)

Lockheed Martin Wins EELV Contract Funds (Source: DOD)
Lockheed Martin was awarded two contract modifications last week worth $145.6 million and $27.5 million to provide launch services and hardware for the AFSPC-2 mission using an Atlas-5 Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The contract modification protects the current launch schedule, avoiding a delay that would adversely impact the launch manifest for a critical national security AFSPC mission. (11/10)

Space Florida Names Spaceport Operations VP (Source: Florida Today)
Space Florida has hired former Air Force Colonel Mark Bontrager as vice president of spaceport operations. Bontrager will lead the development of the organization's spaceport holdings. Specifically, he will serve as a key resource in the development of Launch Complex 36, two multi-vehicle launch pads located at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Bontrager will also be responsible for managing other Space Florida holdings on Florida's East Coast, including LC-46, LC-47, the Shuttle Landing Facility/Hangar, Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) and both Space Florida Brevard County campuses. (11/10)

NASA Says Can't Reach Mars Lander, Ends Mission (Source: Reuters)
NASA scientists said on Monday that they could no longer communicate with the Phoenix Mars Lander and were calling an effective end to its five-month-plus mission on the Red Planet. Launched in August 2007, the spacecraft landed on Mars in late May, touching down on a frozen desert at the planet's north pole to search for water and assess conditions for the possibility of sustaining life. Since then, Phoenix has recorded snowfall, scraped up bits of ice and found that Martian dust chemically resembles seawater on Earth -- adding to evidence that liquid water capable perhaps of supporting life once flowed on the planet's surface. By late October, the probe had already surpassed its expected operational lifetime by two months. (11/10)

ESA Seeks 340 Million Euros To Fund New Ariane 5 Upper Stage Engine (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is asking its 18 member governments to spend 340 million euros ($433 million) for early development of a restartable upper-stage engine for Europe's Ariane 5 rocket as part of a 10-billion-euro, 3-year spending package to be presented for approval Nov. 25-26, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said Nov. 10. (11/10)

India Plans for X-ray Spacecraft 2009 Launch (Source: Flight Global)
India's first dedicated astronomy research satellite, Astrosat, designed to observe the universe using the X-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths, is to be launched in 2009 using a four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Astrosat's scientific objectives include spectroscopic studies of X-ray binaries, supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei and galaxy clusters. In particular Astrosat will look at active galactic nuclei at the core of the Milky Way that is believed to have a super massive black hole and other cosmological objects including quasars and pulsars. (11/10)

Machinists Approve Contract with ULA (Source: Florida Today)
United Launch Alliance learned Sunday that a new contract, which includes workers at the company's three sites, has been accepted by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. The union represents 850 workers at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Decatur, Ala., and Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Ratification of the 3.5-year contract came after IAMAW leadership recommended acceptance of the contract to its members. Some 340 workers at the Cape, out of about 800 ULA employees, are covered by the contract. (11/10)

The Transition from Politics to Policy (Source: Space Review)
Change was a major theme of the 2008 presidential campaign, and President-Elect Barack Obama will presumably be bringing some change to space policy as his administration takes office. Jeff Foust examines some elements of the Obama campaign's space policy that themselves could use a bit of change as they're implemented. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1249/1 to view the article. (11/10)

Is the American Military Space Program in Perpetual Crisis? (Source: Space Review)
It sounds like a broken record: once again, major US military space programs are facing cost overruns and delays. Dwayne Day reviews the problems with milspace efforts and what causes are at their roots. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1248/1 to view the article. (11/10)

Will Oberstar Kill the NewSpace Industry? (Source: Space Review)
A change in administrations means a change in the leaders of most Cabinet-level agencies. Taylor Dinerman warns that one potential candidate to become the next transportation secretary could have ominous implications for the nascent space tourism industry. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1247/1 to view the article. (11/10)

A Russian Resurgence? (part one) (Source: Space Review)
Russia is bouncing back, both politically and economically, from the post-Soviet collapse of the 1990s, as was vividly demonstrated this summer with its invasion of Georgia. In the first of a two-part article, Nader Elhefnawy examines what this resurgence means for Russia's space program. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1246/1 to view the article. (11/10)