January 14 News Items

Life on Mars (Source: The Sun)
Alien microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the Red Planet, NASA scientists believe. The gas, belched in vast quantities in our world by cows, was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes. The find is seen as exciting new evidence that Martian microbes are still alive today. Some scientists reckon methane is also produced by volcanic processes. But there are no known active volcanoes on Mars. Furthermore, NASA has found the gas in the same regions as clouds of water vapour, the vital “drink” needed to support life.

Experts speculate that the methane is being emitted as a waste product by organisms called methanogens living in water beneath underground ice. And they would have to be alive today because the methane would otherwise have been lost from the Martian atmosphere. John Murray — a member of the Mars Express European space probe team — believes the mini-Martians may be in a form of suspended animation, and he has found overwhelming evidence of a vast frozen ocean beneath the dust near the Martian equator where simple life could have thrived as microbes. (1/14)

Too Early to Call NASA Chief Job for Gration? (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Retired Air Force General J. Scott Gration is not an automatic lock to becomes NASA's next administrator, according to sources familiar with the situation. Instead, these sources -- who requested anonymity because of the fluid nature of the nominating process -- cautioned that no final decision has been made in response to reports he would lead the space agency. Although he still could end up being the nominee.

In the meantime, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida questioned whether Gration -- a career military man, former Republican and Barack Obama supporter -- was the right pick for the space agency. "I think President Bush made a mistake when he appointed someone without NASA experience in Sean O’Keefe to head the agency. I hope President Obama’s pick will have that kind of [space] background,” said Nelson through a spokesman. Nelson has been supportive of another potential nominee: former astronaut Charles Bolden. The two men flew to space together in 1986 aboard the space shuttle Columbia. (1/14)

Secret Inspection Satellites Boost Space Intelligence Operations (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
In a top secret operation, the U.S. Defense Dept. is conducting the first deep space inspection of a crippled U.S. military spacecraft. To do this, it is using sensors on two covert inspection satellites that have been prowling geosynchronous orbit for nearly three years. The failed satellite being examined is the $400 million U.S. Air Force/Northrop Grumman Defense Support Program DSP 23 missile warning satellite. It died in 2008 after being launched successfully from Cape Canaveral in November 2007 on the first operational Delta 4-Heavy booster. Since the U.S. is now demonstrating the ability to do such up close rendezvous and inspection of American spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit, it means USAF now has at least a "call up capability" to do the same to non-U.S. spacecraft like those from Russia and China. (1/14)

Obama Asks Retired Air Force General to Run NASA (Source: Space News)
President-elect Barack Obama has asked retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, one of his top foreign policy and military advisers during his campaign, to take the helm of NASA, according to a source informed of the selection. An announcement is expected as soon as Wednesday. If that happens, he would be the first NASA administrator to be announced before the incoming president's inauguration.

Gration, a decorated fighter pilot who held senior policy positions in the military prior to his retirement, is a virtual unknown to the space community, but has some experience with NASA. In 1982, as a captain and fighter pilot instructor recently returned from Kenya, Gration spent a year as a White House Fellow working for NASA's deputy administrator at the time, Hans Mark. (1/13)

Griffin Describes Urgent NASA Decisions (Source: Aerospace Daily)
The White House and Congress face a number of imminent decisions concerning NASA in 2009, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin says, including whether the agency will endure another full-year continuing resolution, as well as decisions on the future of the International Space Station (ISS) beyond 2015. Griffin warned of the consequences if the continuing resolution (CR) currently funding NASA - which essentially freezes spending at prior-year levels and amounts to a cut of several hundred million dollars - is extended beyond its current cutoff of March 15. "If we're going to have a CR for the remainder of FY '09, we're going to have contractor layoffs," he said. "Unequivocally."

Also, a final decision must be made soon about whether the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) will fly to the ISS or not, and how that flight will be paid for, Griffin said during a Space Foundation breakfast in Washington Jan. 13. Congressional authorizers have ordered NASA to insert a flight into the manifest to deliver AMS, although the money still must be provided. There is an 18-month integrated timeline, which means the final decision must be made no later than this spring, according to Griffin. "If they want to fly the flight, someone has to send money ... because right now it's not on the books," Griffin said.

A final decision also must be made by the summer whether the shuttle will retire on schedule in 2010 or be extended to close the projected gap in U.S. human spaceflight capability before the introduction of the Orion/Ares system, according to Griffin. NASA has estimated that an infusion of about $4 billion into the Constellation program could move Orion/Ares up about a year from its currently scheduled 2015 debut, while the shuttle could be kept flying twice a year past 2010 for an annual cost of $3 billion. (1/14)

Expert: Graveyard Orbit Impractical (Source: Express Buzz)
The idea of a graveyard orbit for dead satellites so as to limit space debris may not be very practical now, according to French space policy expert Isabelle Soubes Verger. "To shift a dying spacecraft to a graveyard orbit, we need lots of fuel," said Isabelle, who is currently a senior researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris. The transfer to graveyard orbit requires the same amount of fuel that a satellite needs for approximately three months of station-keeping. "And no country is now willing to spend so much of money on a satellite-funeral. But in order to lower the probability of collisions with operational spacecraft and to prevent additional space debris, this setting apart of money for the funeral may become obligatory," she added. (1/14)

Pratt & Whitney Engine Tested for Lunar Landing Craft (Source: NASA)
Tests by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne in West Palm Beach, Florida, are gathering data on a concept engine that might play a role in the next stage of human exploration of the moon. Most rockets make spacecraft travel faster. The Common Extensible Cryogenic Engine, or CECE, is a deep-throttling engine, which means it has the flexibility to reduce thrust from 100 percent down to 10 percent -- allowing a spacecraft to gently land on the lunar surface. The 13,800-pound thrust engine uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellants. During the test, the engine was successfully throttled from a high of a 104 percent of the engine's potential down to eight percent, a record for an engine of this type. The CECE demonstrator has evaluated two engine configurations during three rounds of hot-fire testing. (1/14)

In Cash-Hoarding mode, EADS Cancels U.S. Acquisition (Source: AIA)
Under pressure to provide credit to its commercial jet customers, Airbus corporate parent EADS says it has canceled a "significant" defense acquisition in the U.S. to conserve cash. "We need this cash to protect the company and sometimes support our suppliers, in particular when they are in common with the auto industry," CEO Louis Gallois said at a news conference on Tuesday. "We were on the way to sending the check, and we pulled out at the last minute." Another EADS executive said the scuttled deal was valued at roughly $1 billion. (1/13)

Pentagon Panel Calls for Streamlined Export Rules (Source: AIA)
Pentagon task force is joining weapons makers to call for streamlined export procedures. The Defense Business Board Task Group on Best Practices for Export Controls says U.S. manufacturers should be granted broad licenses that cover both weapons and parts, rather than the current practice of requiring a host of individual licenses. The task force also recommended regular updates to the list of munitions that require licenses, noting that some items are now easily obtainable in the marketplace. Editor's Note: The space industry has the same concerns about export regulations and their impact on U.S. competitiveness. (1/14)

Embraer Deliveries Surge in 2008 (Source: AIA)
Embraer, the world's leading manufacturer of regional jets seating up to 120 passengers, said it delivered 204 jets last year, a 21% increase over 2007's 169 planes. The company ended the year with $20.9 billion in firm orders on its books. Editor's Note: Embraer is building a new U.S. final assembly facility on Florida's Space Coast and the facility is expected to employ workers who may transition from the Space Shuttle program. (1/14)

Race to International Space Station Begins in Earnest (Source: Flight Global)
NASA's nascent commercial orbital transport system (COTS) is expected to go live late next year under a $3.5 billion program. The program's aim is to provide more than half of the cargo needed to run the International Space Station in the post-Space Shuttle era. The agency on 23 December announced that Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences won commercial cargo resupply services (CRS) contracts valued at $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion, respectively. Each must deliver 20,000kg (44,000lb) of a to-be-determined mix of pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the station from 2010 until 2015 under the contracts. NASA's payments are to be made in relation to a series of milestones to be completed.

Forthcoming test flights under the COTS program will reveal if SpaceX's ambitions are within its means. The company is preparing to launch its prototype Dragon-Falcon from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in June. The first Dragon, sans solar array and thermal system, will orbit the Earth three times at an inclination of 34° before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down under parachute control in the Pacific Ocean up to 483km (260nm) off the coast of California. The second launch, late this year, will include an ISS fly-by to within 10km. The third mission, in the first quarter 2010, will see the Dragon docked to the ISS via the station's remote manipulator arm. (1/14)

Recession May Ground Space Flights (Source: The Hill)
President-elect Obama will have to decide the fate of the costly U.S. space program amid a global recession and skyrocketing deficits. Obama faces a decision at the end of April on whether to continue the Space Shuttle initiative, which NASA otherwise plans to shut down. Congress last fall set a deadline for the new administration to decide this spring on whether to reverse course and continue the program, still the only way NASA has to transport Americans into space. Those who wanted to end the shuttle program said its continuation is shifting money from the Constellation program, the Bush administration’s plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 with an eye toward eventually sending them to Mars and other planets. (1/14)

In a Big Year for Telescopes, Much Peering Into Wallets (Source: Washington Post)
The big bang, black holes, dark matter, dark energy, extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, quasars, pulsars, cosmic rays, the space-time continuum, galaxies and more galaxies. Do you see what Galileo started? It's been 400 years since University of Padua professor Galileo Galilei, a precocious Italian of relatively modest achievement, had the bright idea of turning a modified spyglass toward the night sky. What he saw forever shattered the ancient Earth-centered cosmos. Four centuries later, telescopes are among the greatest marvels of civilization, and they reveal daily that the universe is vaster, stranger and more violent than Galileo could have imagined.

This is going to be a particularly big year for telescopes, and not just because it's officially the International Year of Astronomy, featuring astronomy conferences, space-related art projects, and telescopes flooding the market at $10 and up. There will also be breaking news. But even if it's a Golden Age of Astronomy, it's also one of feverish competition, a scramble for dollars in a time when governments have bigger worries than black holes at the centers of galaxies.

NASA is astronomy's biggest supporter, funneling nearly $1.2 billion into astrophysics in its '09 budget. The National Science Foundation, the Energy Department, the military and nonprofit groups deliver hundreds of millions more. Even so, astronomers have a surplus of great ideas for telescopes and a shortage of funds. "As it is, we're waiting a decade and a half before we get even one of our highest-priority telescopes up and running," said Kevin Marvel, executive officer of the American Astronomical Society. (1/14)

Giant Rockets Could Revolutionize Astronomy (Source: NASA)
In the game of astronomy, size matters. To get crisp, clear images of things billions of light years away, a telescope needs to be big. "The bigger the better," says astronomer Harley Thronson. And he thinks "NASA's new Ares V rocket is going to completely change the rules of the game." Its roomy shroud could hold about eight school buses, and the rocket will pack enough power to boost almost 180,000 kg (396,000 lbs -- about 16 or 17 school buses) into low Earth orbit. Ares V can haul six times more mass and three times the volume the space shuttle can. (1/14)

Central Florida Remains Strong Player in Defense in 2009 (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Despite an economy starved by recession, Central Florida's defense industry has remained well-fed by the nation's wartime budgets. Even as the region has suffered big job losses in the financial sector, defense contracts worth billions of dollars have supported tens of thousands of high-paying jobs at the Central Florida defense units of Lockheed Martin Corp., Harris Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and other companies. As a candidate, the president-elect cited the huge costs of the war in Iraq -- $10 billion a month. He urged ending it and using the "peace dividend" for new priorities such as the economy, health care and education. Conventional wisdom says that won't happen for a good while, and certainly not this year.

Though Central Florida's space industry will face a crisis -- and potentially thousands of job losses -- as the shuttle program phases out, local leaders hope the defense industry will help take up the slack. The threat of such major unemployment during a recession should help ward off significant defense cuts in the near term, said John Pike, president of GlobalSecurity.org. Industry officials cite other factors that will support defense spending in 2009. After almost a decade of war, for example, the U.S. arsenal needs an overhaul. Many trucks, tanks and planes are worn and need repair. (1/14)

Cape Canaveral Firm Supports Lockheed Martin Air Force Work (Source: Craig)
Craig Technologies will support the Aircrew Training and Rehearsal Support (ATARS II) program with Lockheed Martin, and has recently hired for positions at Kirtland AFB, NM and Hurlburt Field in Northwest Florida. ATARS II is a distributed, fully-networked environment that provides combat-ready aircrews to support Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) units deployed across the world in support of national requirements. Craig currently provides technical support to execute custom-designed combat training and simulation systems used in pilot education and mission instruction for the C-130 Talon, Spectre and Shadow, MH-53 Pave Low and MH-60 Pave Hawk and the CV-22 Osprey. (1/14)

Beam Us Up, Obama! (Source: Fox)
Will the nation's stimulus money be put to good use? That’s an important question for the new President. The metric for all government spending ultimately comes down to a single query: What did you get for it?. So let’s hope we get the most value possible for all that money–and all that red ink. Let’s hope we get a more prosperous nation and a cleaner earth. Let’s also hope we get a more secure population and a clear, strategic margin of safety for the United States. Yet how do we do all that? There’s only one best way: Put space exploration at the center of the new stimulus package. That is, make space the spearhead rationale for the myriad technologies that will provide us with jobs, wealth, and vital knowhow in the future. By boldly going where no (hu)man has gone before, we will change life here on earth for the better. (1/14)