January 11 News Items

France to Supply Technology for Vietnam Satellite (Source: AFP)
Vietnam has chosen France to supply the technology for its second satellite, state media reported Thursday. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said France will also provide aid for the VNREDSat-1 project, which would be worth an estimated 100 million dollars, according the English-language Vietnam News daily. (1/9)

Orbcomm Customer Base Grew by 19,000 to End '08 (Source: Space News)
Satellite two-way messaging service provider Orbcomm added 19,000 net new billable subscribers to its system in the three months ending Dec. 31, bringing the total subscriber base to 460,000, the Ft. Lee, N.J.-based company said. Company managers told investors Jan. 6 they do not foresee a need to raise fresh capital to finance Orbcomm's second-generation satellites. (1/11)

China's SatNav Progress Stokes Concerns About Galileo Overlap (Source: Space News)
European government authorities are increasingly concerned that China will launch a constellation of navigation and timing satellites fitted with an encrypted government-only signal that overlaps the military-level signal Europe plans for its own Galileo constellation to be launched around 2013, European government and industry officials said.

The concerns have been heightened by Chinese authorities' assertion in recent weeks that China's Compass/Beidou system is moving forward much faster than previously thought. Chinese officials attending a recent conference of nations building satellite-navigation systems said they would launch 10 Chinese Long March 3 rockets during the next 24 months to begin deploying Compass/Beidou's medium Earth orbit component. European officials also have been surprised to learn that the first Compass/Beidou medium Earth satellite, launched in 2007, is providing substantially better atomic-clock timing precision than was expected. China had purchased atomic clocks from a Swiss company, but these were said at the time to be an older technology. (1/11)

Arianespace Chief Sees Plus in Trend Toward Lighter Satellites (Source: Space News)
Europe's Arianespace launch consortium expects to win about 50 percent of the market for satellite launches open to competitive bidding in 2009, especially with the current trend toward less-heavy satellites, Arianespace Chief Executive Jean-Yves Le Gall said. Of the 12 commercial satellite launch contracts Arianespace signed in 2008, half were for satellites weighing 3,000 kilograms or less; and even the bigger satellites were in the 4,000-5,500-kilogram range and not the 6,000-kilogram class that some observers had thought would dominate the market. (1/11)

Pressing National Security Space Issues Await New President (Source: Space News)
U.S. policies governing remote sensing, launch vehicles and hardware acquisition are among the key national security space issues U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will face during the early years of his administration. The incoming president inherits a military space acquisition system that many describe as dysfunctional, a commercial satellite imagery policy that has been challenged by the affected agencies, and a strategy for maintaining so-called assured access to space that is set to be reviewed in 2010. Military space received very little, if any, attention during the campaign, but experts say this is not for a lack of issues that will need to be addressed. (1/11)

Obama's Response to China in Space (Source: CTV)
As China ramps up its space program, NASA is slowing down. Its aging fleet of shuttles, all designed and built in the 1980s expect for Endeavour, will be retired in 2010. Griffin, still the top NASA administrator, has said extending the program would cost $3 billion -- each year. To boost the program, president-elect Barack Obama may take a radical step. According to a report from Bloomberg News, he might break down the barrier between civil and military space exploration, essentially allowing the Pentagon to finance operations in NASA. The move would allow NASA to send equipment into space using military rockets, which are less expensive and widely available.

Although it appears to be solely a way to save money, it may startle those opposed to any potential militarization of space -- something the U.S. has never explicitly opposed. That includes the administration of President George Bush, said Ram Jakhu, an associate professor at the Institute of Air and Space Law at Montreal's McGill University. "There have not been any statements from the U.S. saying they will not put weapons in space, so to me that means it's an open option," he told CTV.ca. "If you look at the 2006 policy, this is very clear and perhaps the first hint they want to keep all options open, including weaponization. "It's also a question of dominance. They want to dominate; they want to deny access to their enemies. So it's a very aggressive, very hawkish policy." (1/11)

What Exactly Does China Want in Space? (Source: CTV)
China's space program has unsettled analysts in the United States, who fear the country is not only breaking through Earth's atmosphere in name of science -- it's also extending the reach of its military. "Ninety-five per cent of space technology is dual use, meaning it's a value to both civil and military communities. So whatever China does in exploration, some see it as potentially nefarious because of the technology spill-over to the military realm," Joan Johnson-Freese, an expert at the U.S. Naval War College said. "I've had Chinese space officials ask me, 'What can China do in space that the United States would not see as threatening?' And the answer to that, quite frankly, has been nothing." (1/11)

Japanese Antarctic Researchers Collaborate on Space Lifestyle Research (Source: Mainichi Daily News)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and National Institute of Polar Research is launching a research project on health management technology for astronauts, making use of similarities between the International Space Station (ISS) -- where astronauts are required to spend long periods in an enclosed space -- and the Showa Station, a Japanese observation base in Antarctica. The research will start next month, when astronaut Koichi Wakata will become the first long-term Japanese resident of the ISS. Experiments will also be carried out in Antarctica. (1/11)

Roscosmos to Approve Design of New Spaceship (Source: Interfax)
A project of Russia's new manned space system that will replace the Soyuz ships will be approved in late March. Projects of the new spaceship have been prepared by the design and construction bureau Energiya, the Makeyev Design Bureau, TsSKB Progress, and the Khrunichev Space Center. The new rockets are supposed to use environmentally-friendly fuel. The future rocket will be launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome, whose construction will start in the Amur region in 2011-2112. The new spaceship will have a carrying capacity of 4 to 6 people. The European Space Agency may take part in the construction of the spaceship. (1/11)

South Africa and Other Nations Enter Space (Source: Times of South Africa)
Visit http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Lifestyle/Article.aspx?id=913350 for a timeline of South Africa's brief history in space, and visit http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Lifestyle/Article.aspx?id=913352 for brief descriptions of other emerging space-faring nations. (1/10)