December 20 News Items

EELV Option Raises Workforce Questions (Source: ERAU)
Reports that President-Elect Obama might consider using converted EELV (Atlas-5 or Delta-4) rockets, instead of Ares-1, to lift its Orion crew capsule are met with ambivalence in Florida, where the impact of the Space Shuttle's retirement will be most felt. Would an EELV solution shorten the gap? Possibly. Would it cost less than Ares-1? Probably. Unfortunately, however, this option would likely have the greatest negative impact on the Space Coast workforce, where Shuttle contractor United Space Alliance (USA) is the state's largest space industry employer. Retaining the USA workforce's unique skill mix for future lunar and Mars launch operations is one of the main concerns after the Shuttle retires.

United Launch Alliance (ULA), the contractor for EELV launches, would benefit from the EELV option. But adding NASA Orion missions to its current military launch manifest would provide even fewer opportunities to capture commercial launch business, which has all but disappeared at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport due to EELV cost and schedule issues. The use of a Shuttle-derived vehicle for Orion (and other exploration missions) would keep Shuttle workers and contractors engaged in Florida and other states. (12/20)

Broken Pipe Floods Kansas Cosmosphere (Source: Lawrence Journal-World)
A broken water pipe has flooded a third of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson. No artifacts are damaged, but some exhibits have been closed. The pipe broke early Friday and dumped water as deep as 8 to 12 inches in some spots. The pipe broke at a Hutchinson Community College construction site that is connected to the Cosmosphere. (12/20)

Editorial: Replacement for Shuttle Must Serve as Bridge Craft (Source: Houston Chronicle)
As NASA celebrates its 50th anniversary, the agency is engaged in a difficult challenge: designing and building a new spacecraft that first will provide transportation and crew rescue for the International Space Station, then ultimately enable interplanetary exploration, starting with the moon. So why is this important given the challenging economic times we are facing? Are we building the right rocket? Are we on the correct path? As chief of NASA's Astronaut Office, I would like to offer my perspective.

So what should we replace the space shuttle with? We need a replacement spacecraft and launch system that can fulfill two roles. First, it must be a vehicle that can support the space station. Second, it must be a system that can take us beyond low Earth orbit and back to the moon in accordance with NASA's exploration plans, then possibly on to more distant destinations. Click here to view the article. (12/20)

Solar Spacecraft Inherits a New Launch Opportunity (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The delay of NASA's next Mars mission will allow an $800 million solar observatory to move out of launch limbo and into an opening in the Atlas 5 rocket's manifest next October. Officials formally approved the change Wednesday after negotiations with United Launch Alliance, the company that oversees the Atlas and Delta rocket fleets. The 6,600-pound satellite will blast off from Cape Canaveral between Oct. 8 and Nov. 6. The launch period was originally assigned to the Mars Science Laboratory mission, but agency officials delayed the probe's launch two years earlier this month to overcome a rash of technical hurdles. (12/20)

Delta-2 to Launch Final Cosmo-Skymed Satellite for Italy (Source: Space Today)
Boeing has won a contract to launch the fourth and final satellite for an Italian remote sensing system. A United Launch Alliance Delta 2 will launch Cosmo-Skymed 4 in 2010 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, in a launch procured by Boeing Launch Services, which sells Delta launches commercially. Delta rockets launched the first three Cosmo-Skymed satellites in 2007 and 2008. The Cosmo-Skymed satellites are built by Thales Alenia Space Italia for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense, providing synthetic aperture radar imagery. (12/19)

British Science Museum Plans £30 Million Bid for Retired Shuttle (Source: Daily Mail)
The British Science Museum hopes to bid for NASA's space shuttle Endeavour when it goes on sale at the end of the Space Shuttle Program. The museum has already revealed plans to raise £30m to add the iconic object to its Exploring Space gallery - set up to inspire young people and budding scientists and engineers. (12/19)

Editorial: Keeping a Shuttle on the Space Coast (Source: Florida Today)
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center has been home to the orbiters for 30 years but, as we all know, their days are numbered. One of the vehicles should stay at the spaceport as the newest honored member of its gallery of spaceflight that people from around the world come to see. The KSC Visitor Complex is already home to the Atlas and Titan rockets that carried the Mercury and Gemini astronauts into orbit. A giant Saturn 5 moon rocket is also housed in a gleaming must-see educational complex dedicated to the Apollo program.

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington has dibs on shuttle Discovery, leaving Atlantis or Endeavour available for its own place in the shadow of the launch pads from which they’ve blasted off. That is, providing Florida and the Space Coast come up with the dough. Florida officials have already jumped on finding the funds, with support coming from State Sen. Thad Altman, R-Viera, and Space Florida, the state’s space-recruiting agency. We encourage them and leaders throughout the Florida and Brevard business communities to come up with a plan to raise the money and preserve this important part of space program history here on the Space Coast. (12/20)