December 26 News Items

NASA Rejects Trojan Horse (Source: Motley Fool)
The Reuters article read: "NASA, rejecting aerospace giants Lockheed and Boeing, awarded $3.5 billion in contracts to start-up companies on Tuesday to deliver cargo to the International Space Station after the U.S. space shuttles are retired." On Christmas Eve-Eve, NASA finally announced the results of its long-running Commercial Resupply Services competition, and as the tidbit above correctly points out, neither Lockheed nor Boeing (nor Alliant Techsystems, for that matter) wound up in the winners circle. What you may not know, is that none of these three companies were actually bidding for the contract at all, at least not directly.
Instead, these three giants of the aerospace industry chose to hitch their carts to a foal of a company named PlanetSpace, which acted as the prime contractor in the bid. Turns out, NASA was not amused -- nor impressed. (12/26)

ULA May Be in Mix for Moon-Mars Rockets (Source: Denver Business Journal)
President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team recently talked to Colorado-based United Launch Alliance, fueling questions about whether the 4,200-employee company might be tapped to help build the next rocket for human space flights. NASA’s Ares-1 rocket development is over budget and behind schedule, which has made it a frequent target of criticism as the incoming administration studies NASA’s priorities and programs. Questions about whether the ULA’s Atlas and/or Delta rockets could speed up Constellation have grown louder during the presidential transition.

Switching from Ares to another rocket now would require Orion redesigns and other changes that could further delay replacing the shuttle, Doug Cooke, deputy associate administrator of NASA’s exploration systems mission directorate, said during a press conference on Dec. 17. “If you stall [Ares], you’re buying into contractor talk ... you’re paying them while you’re not progressing,” Cooke said. “It’s somewhat the same scenario, even if the dollars may be different.”

None of those [ULA] rockets have the ultra-heavy-lift capability, cockpit controls or extensive launch abort systems needed to carry astronauts, another NASA official wrote. The commercial alternatives would also have to be rated safe for human space flight while NASA’s shuttle and Apollo booster technology at the core of the Ares rockets have already been proven. (12/26)

Kazakhstan Bans Foreigners from Baikonur, Other Areas (Source: RIA Novosti)
The Kazakh government issued a decree on Friday banning foreigners from visiting four areas of the country, including the city of Baikonur, which services the eponymous space center. Baikonur, the town of Gvardeysk near the former capital, Almaty, and two regions in the Kyzylorda province have been closed to foreigners until 2015. (12/26)

An Indian on the Moon by 2020 (Source: Times Now)
After the successful launch of the Chandrayaan, India is now dreaming bigger. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is working on a mission to send man to the Moon by year 2020. Barely a month after India entered the exclusive nuclear club, the ISRO is aiming to land an Indian on the moon. Nair speaking on the development towards that, said, "We're developing a capsule to carry humans to space. Two astronauts are going to the earth's orbit for a week or so in 2015 and then 5 or 6 more years to send a man to the moon." (12/26)