December 30 News Items

NASA Rovers Set to Celebrate Five Years on Mars (Source: Columbus Dispatch)
They have been battered by dust, an inhospitable terrain and a workload that was never supposed to outlast their 90-day warranties. But in a week, the twin Mars rovers, Spirit and Odyssey, will celebrate five years of exploration. Spirit landed first, on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity landed on Jan. 25, 2004. "They're like that old Volvo or Honda in your driveway; they keep running and running," said John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. (12/30)

Lockheed Martin Wins $17 Million AEHF Satellite Contract Modifications (Source: DOD)
The Air Force has modified a contract with Lockheed Martin for $7,189,000, and $9,909,270 to perform thermal vacuum (TVAC) on Advanced High Frequency (AEHF) spacecraft, and for feasibility studies to extend the AEHF system in the Military Satellite Communications Program. (12/30)

Military Rockets: Solution for NASA? (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
For more than three years, NASA chief Michael Griffin has maintained that the safest, most reliable and affordable way to return astronauts to the moon is on the Ares I, a rocket he helped design from parts of the space shuttle. Alternatives, he insisted, such as modified military "EELV" rockets, were simply not capable of carrying humans to the moon and beyond. But interviews and documents indicate that military rockets can lift astronauts safely into space -- and to the moon -- for billions less and possibly sooner than NASA's current designs.

The EELV rockets, however, do come with a big potential drawback: they would require fewer workers at KSC than Ares I. That also would likely mean job losses in Huntsville. The prospect of large numbers of unemployed rocket scientists and engineers on the streets of Florida and Alabama poses a thorny political problem for EELV supporters as legislators are loath to increase unemployment and feed even more job losses than the thousands already forecast when the shuttle retires in 2010.

NASA chose the Ares I over the military rockets after a study by top NASA officials in 2005. But critics of the report have long claimed NASA put its thumb on the scale, padding the study with some data while excluding other facts to make Ares I look better than its rivals. Click here to view the article. (12/30)

The Fight Over NASA’s Future (Source: New York Times)
NASA named the rocket Ares I, as in the god of war — and its life has been a battle from the start. Technical troubles have dogged the design process with delays and growing costs. And in an age of always-on communication, instant messages and blogs, internal debate that once might have been part of a cloistered process has spilled into public view. Some inside the development program have complained that it is run with a my-way-or-the-highway attitude that stifles dissent and innovation. Some critics say there are profound problems with the design that render the Ares I dead on arrival, while other observers argue that technical complications crop up in any spacecraft development program of this scope.

There is momentum behind using Atlas and Delta rockets, which proponents say could quickly be fitted with the Orion capsule. One expert says using military rockets would be far more complex than simply putting a capsule on top of off-the-shelf equipment. Rockets built for satellites would have to be extensively modified before putting humans aboard. A second group of engineers favors plans for a follow-up system, called Direct 2.0, that is drawn largely from old NASA plans that had been abandoned. Ross Tierney, a spokesman for the group pushing Direct 2.0, said, “Let’s have an independent review and check them all out.” Click here to view the article. (12/29)

India Developing Rocket That Cuts Launch Cost by Half (Source: Economic Times)
India is developing a new-generation rocket that would cut satellite launch cost by half, boosting low-cost access to space, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said. Nair said the cost of Indian launch vehicles are currently lower by 20-30 percent compared to international prices. "But by developing the next generation (launch) vehicles...Mark-III (GSLV-Mk III), we should be able to cut down the (launch) cost to half of what it is today", he said.

He said GSLV-Mk III, expected to be operational in 2010, would make India the cheapest and lowest cost satellite launch services provider in the world. According to officials of Bangalore-headquartered ISRO, GSLV-Mk III is envisaged to launch four ton satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. (12/29)

With U.S. Help, Private Space Companies Press Their Case: Why Not Us? (Source: New York Times)
While NASA has been sliding toward the gap, a collection of companies known as the new space industry has been growing up. But none are ready to step up to the task of getting astronauts to the station. The best-known company, Virgin Galactic, has been in the headlines for years thanks to its founder, Sir Richard Branson. But the craft it plans to use, called SpaceShipTwo, is designed to reach only suborbital space in a simple up-and-down flight.

NASA has jump-started two companies’ plans to provide cargo services to the station, Orbital Sciences and SpaceX. SpaceX plans to go even further than delivering supplies to the station. Its founder, Elon Musk, says that his rockets could help NASA fill the human flight gap as early as 2011. His cargo rockets have been designed from the start to meet NASA’s requirements for human spaceflight, including the 40 percent margin of safety that NASA demands on human-rated launching vehicles. “There’s only one significant thing missing” to take the cargo craft to a crew ship, he said, “and that is the escape tower,” which could save the crew in the event of an emergency during launching. (12/29)

Angola to Launch Telecom Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
Angola is to launch a multi-sectoral support telecom satellite in January 2009, according to the nation's Ministry of Telecom and Information Technologies. The ministry has realized all important goals in 2008,including the preparations for the launching of Infrasat, adding that the telecom satellite, among other aspects, will provide NetSat services, enabling the use of telephone and internet in remote areas. (12/30)

SpaceX: More NASA Launches, Less Money (Source: Discovery News)
Discovery: I was a little struck by the number of launches that SpaceX is offering to do compared what Orbital is going to do and was wondering if that caught your eye as well. Musk: Hah-ha (laughing). Well … of course. The difference is bigger than even the number of launches because our Dragon spacecraft has 50 percent more payload capability than Orbital. It’s actually, if you were to multiple it out, it’s as if we were doing 18 launches and they were doing eight launches.

Discovery: Do you consider Orbital a competitor for the whole contract? Do you think that you [SpaceX] should have gotten the whole thing? Musk: I don’t know the answer to this because we’ve not had a chance to debrief with NASA -- but it is a little confusing why even though we’re cheaper and we’re further along than Orbital...it is a little confusing that we’re delivering two-thirds of the cargo and getting slightly less than 50 percent of the money -- or more than two thirds of the cargo. We’re doing 12 of the 20 launches and then on a per launch basis, we do 50 percent more than Orbital. Click here to view the interview. (12/29)