December 23 News Items

NASA Responds to China Cooperation Article (Source: NASA)
NASA submitted the following response to Aviation Week's Dec. 1 article on U.S.-China cooperation in space. Calling the article is "inaccurate and misleading," NASA says it never asked the White House for the cooperative mission described in the article. "The White House has been very supportive of a deliberate and careful establishment of [NASA-China] relations." Also, "Approval would, of course, be affected by the overall status of the U.S.-China government-to-government relationship. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), space shuttle flights, and International Space Station were never intended by either NASA or CNSA to be considered by the NASA-CNSA working group." (12/23)

NASA Awards Station Commercial Resupply Contracts To SpaceX and Orbital (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded two contracts -- one to Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., and one to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, Calif. -- for commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station. At the time of award, NASA has ordered eight flights valued at about $1.9 billion from Orbital and 12 flights valued at about $1.6 billion from SpaceX. These fixed-price indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts will begin Jan. 1, 2009, and are effective through Dec. 31, 2016.

The contracts each call for the delivery of a minimum of 20 metric tons of upmass cargo to the space station. The contracts also call for delivery of non-standard services in support of the cargo resupply, including analysis and special tasks as the government determines are necessary. NASA has set production milestones and reviews on the contracts to monitor progress toward providing services. The maximum potential value of each contract is about $3.1 billion. Based on known requirements, the value of both contracts combined is projected at $3.5 billion. (12/23)

Worst Leadership Performances of 2008 (Source: Washington Post)
The "Act Clueless Award" Goes to NASA's Michael Griffin. The incumbent administrator of NASA judged Lori Garver, head of president-elect Obama's NASA transition team, as "not qualified" to evaluate the merits of the return-to the moon Constellation rocket program. Griffin then sought an audience with the president-elect. Speculation is that Griffin is afraid that the Obama administration will gut his pet project and so he has asked NASA contractors to withhold information on Constellation. (12/23)

Virginia TacSat-3 Launch Delayed Until March (Source: Spaceports Blog)
The TacSat-3 or Tactical Satellite is now delayed until March 2009 for launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur I booster rocket from the FAA/AST commercially licensed Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport co-located at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The TacSat-3 will be the third orbital launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in a little over two years with the Minotaur I booster rocket. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport was selected by Orbital Sciences Corporation for the first test flights of the Taurus-2 NASA COTS flight to demonstrate re-supply capability to the International Space Station in late 2010. (12/23)

New Report Details Aerospace Workforce Needs, Remedies (Source: AIA)
A new report from the aerospace industry promotes the need to convince more students to study math and science and makes proposals to senior policy makers to improve those education disciplines. The new report, "Launching the 21st Century American Aerospace Workforce," documents steps the industry is taking to head off a potential workforce crisis and makes nine policy recommendations to government partners.

The report is a follow-up to an analysis released earlier this year that detailed the goals and actions the industry must take to meet the challenge. A series of specific recommendations are featured in the report, including establishing and funding a strong innovation and economic competitiveness agenda, creating a cabinet-level council dealing with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education and revising federal education law to optimize preparation for students pursuing technical careers. Click here to download the report. (12/23)

Courageous Balloonists Were First Men in Space (Source: The Exception)
Did you know that the first men to go into space got there in a hot air balloon? The First Men In Space, shown at the Imagine Science Film Festival, is an exhilarating documentary that follows the Air Force test pilot and scientists who made death-defying trips up to the stratosphere in a small capsule dubbed "Excelsior." Their daring, persistence and success ignited the country's imagination about the possibilities of space exploration in the 1950s -- and years after Sputnik changed the world by beeping, NASA would turn to their research to prepare the first astronauts for flight. Click here to view a video. (12/23)

Editorial: NASA's Essential Place in Space is Saving Earth (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Constellation is on a mission to painfully go where NASA has gone all too often before. If Obama is serious about his pledge to redo the way Washington does business, he would undo Griffin. He would send him packing, put the brakes on Constellation, throw out NASA's entire budgeting office and spend the next few years devising a mission for NASA more relevant to the times. Obama talks about the need to reinvigorate America as the world's leading science nation. He wants to create a new generation of nerds intent on saving the planet from Ford Explorers. It seems that exposing kids to 25 years of floating astronaut video isn't doing the trick. Click here to view the article. (12/23)

NASA Pushes for Summer Launch of Ares Test Rocket (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
NASA is forging ahead with plans for a July test launch of the Ares 1-X rocket, despite uncertainty over President-elect Barack Obama's priorities on space. Though some critics are dismissing the plan as an expensive show, NASA insists it needs engineering data from an actual launch to confirm calculations and computer models. "One test is worth a thousand expert opinions," an official at the Kennedy Space Center said. Visit http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/081221a.html to view the article. (12/23)

ULA Cuts its Layoff Estimate, 23 Positions at Cape (Source: Florida Today)
Fewer United Launch Alliance workers will lose their jobs in February. The company's projected layoff of 350 workers has been reduced to 172. Only 23 positions will be lost at Cape Canaveral, which has about 800 ULA workers. Nationwide, the company employs about 4,200. ULA was formed in 2006 with a merger between Boeing and Lockheed Martin to launch Delta and Atlas rockets for the U.S. government. The layoff reduction was made possible by cost-cutting actions. Travel and research budgets were cut, and normal attrition helped the company reduce the layoff projection.

The company also announced a plan for early retirement and voluntary buyouts, which could reduce further the total number of layoffs in February. Additionally, the Air Force is considering shortening the processing time for Atlas rockets from 60 days to 45 days, which would require more manpower and further reduce the layoffs. While ULA's launch business hasn't grown, neither has it collapsed. "We have a little bit of a backlog," said a spokesman. "There are still launches being awarded." (12/23)

Eight High-Tech Ways to Propel a Spaceship (Source: Cosmos)
What does it take to boldly go where no man has gone before? Conventional rockets fire hot gas through a nozzle to get thrust, but that can't get us to deep space. Rocket scientists have come up with a raft of solutions – some remain in the realm of science fiction, but others verge on reality. Here's a selection of those that might one day carry us across the final frontier. Click here to view the article. (12/23)

Virgin Galactic Lease Likely to Come Next Week (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
A lease agreement between New Mexico and its anchor tenant company for a proposed spaceport likely will come next week, New Mexico Spaceport Authority Director Steve Landeene said. Landeene said the state and company, Virgin Galactic, are wrapping up details on the document, which outlines fees for use of facilities at Spaceport America over a 20-year period. Landeene has said the contract would come before the end of the year. (12/23)

Aerospace Industry Joins Plea for Stimulus Funds (Source: CQ Politics)
Virtually every sector of the aviation industry is pressing an expansive request for help in the upcoming economic stimulus bill, including proposals some groups have sought for a long time. The joint request is coming from groups representing the major U.S. airlines, private pilots, airports, business aviation and airplane manufacturers large and small. Congress is expected to act on the stimulus legislation in January. The aviation proposal, floated Dec. 10 in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, builds on an earlier request from the airport lobby, which had asked for $1 billion in grants to help fund improvement projects at some of the country’s 5,000 public-use airports.

“There are a lot of very, very quickly implemented [aviation] stimulus projects,” said James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association, which represents general aviation service companies. “For example resurfacing a runway, we’ve got well over 1,000 runways in America that need to be resurfaced or some of them lengthened, and that work could easily be done before the summer.” The industry says that such projects would create thousands of jobs. The request also includes $3 billion to fund avionics and other infrastructure upgrades to help ease the expensive transition from the current radar-based air traffic control system to one that relies on satellite GPS, known as “NextGen.” (12/22)

Could Seattle Soon be Home to a Retired Space Shuttle? (Source: NWCN)
Veteran astronaut Bonnie Dunbar has flown five shuttle missions. Her latest mission as the president of the Museum of Flight is to bring one of them to Seattle. "Imagine the shuttle on top of a 747 flying around the Space Needle before landing at Boeing field,” she said. Congress could decide to take three of the shuttles out of service in 2010. NASA is now asking museums and schools around the country to apply to house one. (12/23)

Falcon 9 to be Fully Integrated by Dec. 31 (Source: SpaceX)
Yesterday we lifted the first stage off the shipping truck and lowered it onto the integration assemblies (shown below). With all of the F9 hardware currently at or on its way to the Cape, we are on track for a fully integrated launch vehicle by year's end. Barring any unforeseen delays, the second stage and fairing are expected to arrive at the Cape by December 28th and will be mated on December 31st, just in time for the New Year. The erector is also on track towards operational status in early January, with the base assembly to be aligned and tacked by December 26th and welding to be complete early in the New Year. Hold down assemblies are expected to arrive shortly after the New Year and with our ground control system at SLC-40 currently operational, it's just a matter of days before F9 is vertical at the Cape. (12/23)

Russia To Make 39 Space Launches In 2009 (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
The Russian space agency will make 39 space launches next year from the Baikonur and Plesetsk space centers. Roscosmos said the launches would be made as part of the Federal Space Program, the Glonass federal program, an international cooperation program, and a number of commercial projects. Four Soyuz manned spaceships and five Progress freighters will be launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to the International Space Station (ISS). A Proton rocket will put into orbit two Express communication satellites, two Glonass satellites, 17 communication satellites, two weather and ocean monitoring satellites, one emergency situations monitoring satellite, and six astrophysical satellites to study planets within the solar system. (12/23)

Editorial: Space And The Obama Administration (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
In a few short weeks we will have a new administration and a new set of mandates to be addressed by President-Elect Obama. Unfortunately, the mandates of major national concern do not seem to include government-funded space exploration. Mandates that are on the minds of most Americans include the state of our financial institutions, health of the economy, jobs, foreign trade, social security, health care and the environment. So, where is space in all this?

Given the expected budget squeeze and huge deficits, there is little expectation that NASA will receive sufficient funds to carry out all aspects of its moon-Mars exploration program on the current schedule. President-Elect Obama has no stake in, and no obligation to continue, the Vision for Space that President Bush started in 2004. In fact, it seems likely that any planned human activities based on journeys to the moon and Mars will be at least delayed by several years. Such a delay would probably lead to a postponement of the two Ares launch vehicles and Orion, and a several-year extension of Shuttle operations in order to sustain space station operations at least until a commercial option becomes available. (12/23)

China Launches for Record 11th Time in 2008 (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
China launched a new geostationary weather satellite early Tuesday, marking the country's 11th successful space launch of the year and setting a new record for Chinese space activity. The Feng Yun 2E satellite blasted off aboard a Long March 3A rocket from the Xichang launch center in southwestern China's Sichuan province. (12/23)

Only Seven Launches from Florida in 2008, Likely More in 2009 (Source: ERAU)
Despite a beginning-of-the-year expectation of over 20 launches, the Cape Canaveral Spaceport was the site of only seven launches in 2008, including four Space Shuttle missions (six were planned), two Delta-2 missions (one military and one NASA), and one Atlas-5 mission (commercial).

Published manifests and plans for 2009 include up to 22 missions from Florida, including six Space Shuttle missions, five Atlas-5 missions (three military, one NASA and one TBD commercial), four Delta-2 missions (three military and one NASA), and five Delta-4 missions (three military and two NOAA/NASA). Other "TBD" missions which have not yet been confirmed for 2009 include a possible Ares-1 test launch and a Falcon-9/Dragon mission. The manifest at the Cape is subject to frequent changes and rarely ends up meeting its initial targets, mainly due to technical delays with the various rockets and payloads. (12/23)