December 31 News Items

Lockheed Martin SBIRS Team Delivers Major Subsystems for Second GEO Satellite (Source: CSA)
The Lockheed Martin-led team developing the Air Force's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) has achieved major milestones on the second geosynchronous orbit (GEO-2) spacecraft with the with completion and delivery of the remaining major spacecraft bus subsystems. The GEO-2 spacecraft core structure and propulsion subsystem was recently completed and the high-performance communications subsystem for the spacecraft was delivered in early December. (12/30)

Price for Private Spaceflight to ISS Raised to $35 Million-$45 Million (Source: Interfax)
Space Adventures, a company specializing in arranging private spaceflights, has raised the price for a ten-day journey to the International Space Station (ISS) to $35 million-$45 million, which it announced on its website. U.S. space tourist Richard Garriott, who traveled to the ISS in October 2008, paid $30 million for his flight. (12/31)

NASA Budget Likely to Remain Steady for 2010 (Source: Huntsville Times)
Space exploration isn't likely to get a larger slice of the federal budget pie when President-elect Barack Obama submits his first budget to Congress early next year, space experts predict. The proposed NASA budget for fiscal 2009, which has yet to be signed by President Bush, is just over $20 billion. Marshall Space Flight Center generally accounts for about $2.5 billion annually, and the space shuttle costs about $5 billion a year to operate. The space agency puts more than $530 million into the Alabama economy each year, with the bulk of that money being spent in Huntsville and across North Alabama, according to the NASA budget office.

And those figures will be about the same when the fiscal 2010 budget is rolled out in February, said Dr. Scott Pace, director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. Budget cuts to the Marshall-managed Ares rocket program, which NASA intends to use to replace the space shuttle and send astronauts to the moon, could delay the new rockets - leaving America dependent on other nations to send crews to the International Space Station.

Other centers, such as the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, have not gotten as much money. Launch facilities there, such as the giant Vertical Assembly Building, where the space shuttle is stacked on its fuel tank and solid rocket boosters, have been damaged by severe weather and are crumbling. (12/31)

NASA Releases Columbia Crew Survival Report (Source: SpaceToday.net)
The crew of the space shuttle Columbia lost consciousness within seconds of the breakup of the orbiter during reentry on the STS-107 mission nearly six years ago, a NASA report concludes. An investigation by NASA determined that the crew module of Columbia suffered rapid depressurization after it broke away from the orbiter on Feb. 1, 2003, incapacitating the seven astronauts on board before they could configure their pressure suits. The astronauts also suffered "lethal trauma" from the rapid rotation of the crew compartment after breakup, primarily because of a lack of upper-body restraints. The high altitude and speed of the breakup made the accident unsurvivable with any existing capability, according to the report.

NASA prepared the report, which includes 30 recommendations for safety improvements, to guide the development of not just its own Orion spacecraft but other manned vehicles developed by other countries and commercial entities. The report was released during an ordinarily quiet period between Christmas and New Years so that the children of the crew's families would be at home when the report was released to allow discussion of it in privacy. (12/31)