November 13 News Items

Hubble Directly Observes Planet Orbiting Another Star (Source: NASA)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish." Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite, IRAS. (11/13)


ULA to Lay Off 350 Workers (Source: Florida Today)
United Launch Alliance announced today it will eliminate 350 jobs in in February. The job losses will be spread across all locations. A second round of layoffs could occur in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company employs 4,200 nationwide, with about 800 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (11/13)

Griffin Doubts He'll Remain NASA Chief (Source: Florida Today)
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said he doesn't expect to remain the agency's chief in president-elect Barack Obama's administration. "I serve at the pleasure of the president," Griffin said. "So if the next president wants to ask me to continue, I'd be happy to do it. I doubt that that will happen."

He also said he wasn't sure if the roughly $2 billion Obama promised to add to NASA's budget during the presidential campaign would extend space shuttle flights beyond 2010, speed up development of the Constellation program rockets and spacecraft that will replace the shuttle, or both. If the funding promise is kept, he said, NASA would need to propose to the new administration and Congress how the money can most effectively be spent. (11/13)

To Widen Path to Outer Space, UF Engineers Build Small Satellite (Source: UF)
It’s not much bigger than a softball and weighs just 2 pounds. But the “pico satellite” being designed and built in a University of Florida aerospace engineering laboratory may hold a key to a future of easy access to outer space — one where sending satellites into orbit is as routine and inexpensive as shipping goods around the world. “Right now, the way satellites are built, they’re all large, one-of-a-kind and very expensive,” says Norman Fitz-Coy, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and the lead investigator on the project. “Our idea is that you could mass produce these small satellites and launch 10 or 20 from a single launch vehicle.” (11/13)

Planetary Society Offers Space Exploration Roadmap (Source: Space Politics)
The Planetary Society has released its full-fledged exploration roadmap. The biggest change the society made in NASA’s current exploration plan is to defer the goal of a 2020 human return to the Moon. Instead, they propose human missions beyond the Moon, such as to the Lagrange points and to a near Earth object, before embarking on human lunar landings and a base, and then only if it serves to advance what the society considers the ultimate goal, which is human missions to Mars. Deferring the human lunar missions, they argue, will help reduce the financial burden on NASA and allow it to focus on developing next-generation exploration vehicles. Click here for a copy of the roadmap document. (11/13)

Colorado a Leader in Space Jobs (Source: ColoradoBiz)
About 55,000 people in Colorado work directly for the space indsutry. As of 2007, about 26,000 of them were with private aerospace companies — 120 companies dedicated to the space business and at least 180 that dabble in it. That’s more employees than space mainstays Florida, Texas and New Jersey and behind only California, which, with a whopping 250,000 space workers accounts for 20 percent of the global space business, according to the California Space Authority. The military employs an additional 29,000 workers in space jobs at Buckley, Schriever, and Peterson Air Force Bases, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, the U.S. Air Force Academy. Colorado has, in short, a huge military space presence. It is an engine for thousands of jobs, primarily in developing ground systems and related software, at such companies as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and ITT Systems. Visit http://www.cobizmag.com/articles.asp?id=2409&page=1 to view the article. (10/30)

NASA Tests Lunar Rovers and Oxygen Production Technology in Hawaii (Source: NASA)
NASA has concluded nearly two weeks of testing equipment and lunar rover concepts on Hawaii's volcanic soil. The agency's In Situ Resource Utilization Project, which studies ways astronauts can use resources found at landing sites, demonstrated how people might prospect for resources on the moon and make their own oxygen from lunar rocks and soil. The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems, known
as PISCES and based at the University of Hawaii, Hilo, hosted the tests. Research teams and NASA experts held the tests of several NASA-developed systems in Hawaii because its volcanic soil is very similar to regolith, the moon's soil. (11/13)

Florida Space Grant Consortium Meets in St. Petersburg (Source: ERAU)
The advisory board of the NASA-sponsored Florida Space Grant Consortium met last week at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg to discuss priorities and budget requirements for the coming year, and to review space education and research projects sponsored over the past several years. A student team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University gave a presentation on their microgravity rocket fuel slosh experiment. FSGC last month submitted its 20-year report to NASA. (11/13)

Raytheon Hoping to Transition from Missiles to Rockets (Source: AIA)
With wars in Iraq and Afghanistan expected to wind down under President-elect Barack Obama, the world's biggest maker of guided missiles is looking to NASA as its next big customer. Raytheon Missile Systems believes its technologies can be adapted to rockets, allowing NASA to send astronauts into space for less than the agency is paying now. "We are developing capabilities that have a direct application to NASA's space-exploration mission and could be an untapped resource for the agency," says Donald McMonagle, Raytheon's VP for NASA programs. (11/13)

Endeavour Cleared for Friday Night Launch (Source: AIA)
The space shuttle Endeavour has been cleared for a Friday night launch, though weather forecasters say there is a 40% chance that a cold front will push back the 7:55 p.m. ET launch time. Seven astronauts will deliver new rooms and equipment for the International Space Station, allowing three extra crew members to move aboard by the middle of next year. (11/13)

Moving The Deck Chairs Around at NASA ESMD (Source: NASA Watch)
NASA Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Rick Gilbrech announced Wednesday that he will be leaving the agency for a position in the private sector. NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin announced that Doug Cooke, who has been serving as deputy associate administrator for the directorate since its inception in January 2004, will become the associate administrator. The change is effective Nov. 24. (11/12)

Center's Paper on Space Policy - A Guide for Transition? (Source: NASA Watch)
John Podesta is both the leader of Barack Obama's transition team and the progressive Center for American Progress think tank. The Center recently published a position paper entitled The U.S. Space Program: Restoring Preeminence in Space Science and Exploration, which includes the following recommendations: In the first 100 days, the president, with the advice of his science advisor, should appoint a commission to assess the current status of the U.S. space program and make specific recommendations. The decision to phase out the shuttle by 2010 should be reconsidered; it should be flown until a suitable replacement becomes available.

Talks with our international ISS partners should be held to openly discuss the future of the ISS and commitments by the partner nations. The Vision for Space Exploration should be reevaluated and modified to reflect realistic goals and expectations of future budgets, manpower, national priorities, and opportunities for international cooperation, including access to the program for our space partners. Future U.S. plans to return women and men to the moon and someday to Mars should involve many U.S. federal agencies, universities, and industry, and should be fully international in scope.

Science, including earth observations, should be restated as a top priority for NASA. Wasteful cuts and delays in science missions should be reevaluated and, where warranted, restored. Coordination between NASA, NOAA, and the U.S. Geological Survey should be strengthened. Consideration also should be given to the suggestion that NOAA and USGS be combined to form a new Earth Systems Science Agency. The steady decline in funding for NASA’s aeronautics programs—down 32 percent between FY2004 and 2007—should be reversed. A key stated objective of all NASA’s research and technology programs should be to excite a new generation of scientists and engineers and rebuild scientific and technical expertise within NASA and across the nation. Click here to view the report. (11/13)

Chinese-Built Nigerian Satellite Malfunctions (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Chinese-built Nigerian communications satellite launched last year has malfunctioned in orbit. The NigComSat-1 spacecraft suffered "electricity power exhaustion", according to the China Great Wall Industry Corp., a problem it blamed on the spacecraft's solar panels. Nigerian officials denied reports in the local media that the spacecraft had gone "missing", but did state that the spacecraft's batteries had failed to charge properly. Reports were unclear regarding whether the spacecraft was a total loss or if the problem could be repaired somehow. NigComSat-1 was built by China and launched on a Long March rocket in May 2007. The spacecraft is the same model as a satellite launched for Venezuela last month. (11/13)

Raytheon: Launching a New Mission (Source: The Arizona Republic)
After a stinging defeat last year in a major contract bid, Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson has regrouped and is trying a new tack with NASA. The world's largest maker of guided missiles is convinced it has a bright future in working with NASA, but so far major contracts for work at the space agency have eluded it. "There is a lot of tough competition at NASA that makes it tough for a relative newcomer like Raytheon," said an analyst.

Still, NASA's Project Constellation, which will send astronauts back to the moon by 2020, could help even the playing field. The project will include new missions and spacecraft and possibly opportunities for new players. Raytheon views NASA contracts as a hedge against the eventual winding-down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which have been the company's bread and butter since 2003. It's one of a number of ancillary opportunities the company is pursuing in an effort to diversify. (11/13)

NASA: Drilling Offshore Virginia May Hurt Wallops Launches (Source: Dow Jones)
NASA is protesting a proposal to lease offshore Virginia for oil and natural gas development. NASA fears that giant platforms would interfere with low-altitude suborbital rockets or make missile launchings from its Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. much more difficult. On Wednesday, the U.S Minerals Management Service kicked off a 45-day comment-seeking period, an early step toward a proposed lease sale of waters 50 miles off the coast of Virginia. The area could hold 130 million barrels of oil and 1.14 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The sale could take place as early as 2011. (11/13)

Mars Rover Spirit Has 'Serious' Problem (Source: Space.com)
Even on Mars, misery may love company. On Monday, NASA declared the Phoenix Lander sitting in Mars' arctic plains as a rest-in-peace goner. Dust storm activity and the seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's landing site meant that the craft's solar arrays couldn't churn up enough energizing power – an expected outcome after five months of exploration.

But now the word is that the Spirit Mars rover may be facing near-death. Resting in its equatorial exploration zone on the red planet, Spirit is in silent mode. "It's hard to say exactly how bad this is," said Steve Squyres, leader of the Mars Exploration Rover twins – Spirit and Opportunity. "We've got a rover with dirty solar panels that took a direct hit from a major regional dust storm, so that's serious business. But we don't know enough right now to say how serious," Squyres told me. (11/12)

Chinese Scientist Calls for Cooperation Between Asian Space Powers (Source: Xinhua)
A Chinese scientist on Wednesday called for moon probe program experts in China, India and Japan to step up cooperation to "deepen mankind's understanding of the moon." Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist for China's moon exploration program, said the three countries shared goals on moon probe while each had its advantages. Taking a full map of the moon's surface, detecting minerals and studying the space environment were the common goals, he said.

An official also announced on Wednesday that China would launch a second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, before 2012, as part of its three-stage moon mission. The eventual goal is to bring lunar soil and stone samples back to earth for study in about 2017. In 1990, following the Soviet Union and the United States, Japan became the third country to orbit the moon after sending the Hiten spacecraft. India launched an unmanned lunar orbiter last month. (11/12)

Boeing Develops Common Software to Reduce Risk for TSAT (Source: Boeing)
Boeing announced the successful demonstration of a common software application that can support the space and ground segments of the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT). The demonstration is one of three being conducted by Boeing and partner Raytheon as part of TSAT risk-reduction efforts funded by the U.S. Air Force. Boeing leveraged its expertise in developing software for satellite communications and onboard satellite operations into a collaborative effort with Raytheon, an industry leader in developing ground control software. (11/12)

Intel Brief: Japan's Space Elevator (Source: ISN)
Due to its advanced research in nanotechnology, and its history of breakthrough technological initiatives, Japan will likely be the first nation to develop the capability to construct a space elevator, and is more likely than not to begin construction by 2018. The Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA) recently announced its plans to move ahead with a timeline for designing and constructing the world's first space elevator, which would transport objects from earth to space without the customary rocket launch. While ambitious, the prospect of constructing a space elevator is appealing because it offers an easier, less expensive method of traveling into space.

There are several key issues to overcome to make a space elevator a possibility. First, engineers must develop the technology to build the physical structures necessary to enable an elevator to travel to space. Current technology is unable to produce cable material strong and lightweight enough to haul elevator cars from earth to space. Based on likely continued technological advances and current estimates of the types of material needed, nanotechnology is likely to advance to the point of producing the desired material. (11/12)

Machinists Union at Vandenberg Spacecport Ratifies Contract (Source: Lompoc Record)
United Launch Alliance workers, who are represented by the Machinists union at Vandenberg Air Force Base and two other sites, ratified a new contract that puts employees in three states under the same pact, company officials said. The employees who are part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union voted last week to accept the new contract, which spans more than three years. At Vandenberg, the union workers divided among three launch facilities are composed of 120 Delta rocket workers and 60 Atlas rocket employees. The pact reportedly calls for a 5-percent pay hike the first year, followed by 4-percent boosts each of the next two years. (11/12)

Contact with Extraterrestrial Life by 2025? (Source: CNET)
If you're one of the many people who doubt there's intelligent life anywhere else in the universe, or even someone who thinks there is but that it will take centuries to find it, get ready to be surprised. "We'll find E.T. within two dozen years," senior SETI astronomer Seth Shostak said Tuesday night. That is, he said, if the assumptions of many researchers within the SETI Institute are correct, assumptions that are based on a collision of computing power under Moore's Law and the distance into space we can look with new instruments that will be available to researchers in the years to come. (11/12)

NASA Seeks More Change for Ares I (Source: Flight Global)
Industry will have from 1 December until early January to bid for a NASA electric Thrust Vector Control (TVC) technical feasibility contract for the Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV) first-stage. If adopted, the change from using the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster's (SRB) hydraulic TVC would diminish the level of technology derived from the Shuttle, undermining one of NASA's cost-control strategies. A change would also mean the only shuttle heritage used in the CLV first-stage will be the SRB's metal casings - and even that is being evaluated by NASA for a potential change to a filament wound composite.

NASA's Ares project office manager Steve Cook told Flight: "Because [the electromechanical actuator] has the potential to reduce operations costs in the long run. It is a technology study effort at this point. If we did use it, we would likely do it as a downstream upgrade." In 1993 a NASA Marshall Space Flight Center study examined the use of electric TVC for the Shuttle, also to reduce operation costs. Another downstream upgrade that has already been approved for the CLV is the extension of the first-stage's nozzle for lunar missions from 2020. (11/12)

Editorial: Kosmas and Posey Face Different Challenges to Support NASA (Source: Florida Today)
The Space Coast’s two newly elected members of Congress — Democrat Suzanne Kosmas and Republican Bill Posey — face major challenges in gaining support for NASA as it moves closer to the shuttle era’s end amid a fiscal crisis that gets worse by the day. Both should benefit from President-elect Barack Obama’s pledge to increase NASA funding $2 billion, add a shuttle flight or two, and attempt to speed up development replacement vehicles. But getting bipartisan backing to make it happen in Congress is no certainty.

That means Kosmas and Posey will have to tread wisely, a task made harder by the fact they’re freshmen. The job will be easier for Kosmas because she’ll join an expanded Democratic majority that gives her a voice. Her district includes KSC and she has already asked for — and will likely get — a seat on the House Science and Technology Committee that oversees NASA.

Posey’s situation is far tougher, and if he doesn’t handle it right, it could cripple his pro-NASA efforts before he’s even settled in. He’ll join a severely weakened Republican minority in the middle of a fierce ideological battle. Some Republican House members want the GOP to move further to the right and fight Obama hard, and if Posey joins them he could alienate Democratic leaders and ruin any chance he has to become an effective NASA advocate. Posey’s far smarter choice is to align himself with Republican moderates and demonstrate the reputation he gained in the Florida Legislature as someone with a knack to work across the aisle. (11/12)

Report: Australia Needs Space Program (Source: The Australian)
Australia needs its own space agency like NASA in the US, a Senate report recommends. The Senate Standing Committee on Economics said Australia is missing out on significant innovation and technology opportunities because it lacks a space agency. The committee's report, Lost in Space? Setting a new direction for Australia's space science and industry sector, said the government should establish a Space Industry Advisory Council to oversee the creation of a fully-fledged agency. The council would be made up of industry representatives, government agencies, defense personnel, and academics and chaired by the federal innovation minister. (11/12)

Arizona and Alabama Members Likely to Sit on Science Committee? (Sources: Space Politics)
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat and member of the House Science and Technology Committee (and wife of NASA astronaut Mark Kelly), handily won re-election to a second term in her district. In Alabama, space advocates fear the retirement of senior lawmaker Rep. Bud Cramer (D-AL), could mean cuts to projects like Ares and Orion. Cramer’s newly-elected successor, Parker Griffith, also a conservative Democrat, said he will seek a seat on the House Science and Technology Committee, one of three committee posts he’s seeking. (Cramer had served on the Appropriations committee). (11/11)

Obamanaut Co-Chair on Radio (Source: Spaceports Blog)
Planetary Radio is conducting a two-week look-see into the 'Barocket Science' of the Obama Administration beginning with an interview of space activist and Obamanaut Tim Bailey. Next week, the new Roadmap to Space with Planetary Society Executive Director Dr. Lou Friedman. Visit http://s3.amazonaws.com/planetary/radio/pr20081110.wma to hear the radio program. (11/12)

Space Travel May be Key to World Peace, Garn Tells Utah Vets (Source: Salt Lake Tribune)
Jake Garn believes it was America's freedom, prosperity and opportunity that veterans preserved in war that gave him the opportunity to travel into space. And, the former U.S. senator from Utah said today at Provo's Veterans Day commemoration: It was that trip on the space shuttle Discovery that showed him the key to peace on earth.

In space, he said, one doesn't see the Earth as a globe carved up into different nations, but rather as a small part of a vast universe. "When you realize that there are more galaxies out there than there are grains of sand on the beach, you wonder why are we killing each other?" Garn said. And as more people go into space, they will change their attitude about life on earth and realize we're all brothers and sisters. (11/11)