January 8 News Items

Panel Urges Easing of Rules on High-Tech Exports (Source: New York Times)
When Barack Obama takes office as president, he should immediately change or even scrap many cold war-era regulations on high-tech exports and on immigration by foreign scientists and engineers, an expert panel said. Restricting foreigners’ access to strategically important technology might have been useful decades ago, when the United States was the undisputed world leader across the technological spectrum, the panel said in a report issued by the National Academy of Sciences. But today, it said, the nation is losing scientific and engineering dominance even as militarily useful advances come increasingly from civilian research. (1/8)

Earth Scientist Emerges as Possible Replacement for NASA Chief (Source: Space News)
President-elect Barack Obama's team is now vetting a handful of candidates to lead NASA, among them reportedly is scientist Charles Kennel, who previously ran the agency's Earth science division. Sources close to the NASA transition effort said Obama intends to name a new NASA administrator before Inauguration Day and possibly as soon as Friday.

Kennel is a recent director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. If the Obama administration is determined to put a scientist at NASA's helm, that would disqualify retired U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden. Two sources said the Obama transition team has also reached out to Capitol Hill for input.

Kennel currently chairs the National Academy of Science's Space Studies Board, which keeps a close eye on NASA programs and policies. Last year, Kennel joined a group of former high-ranking U.S. government officials in calling for merging NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey into an independent Earth Systems Science Agency to improve the study of the Earth's changing environment. That proposal envisioned leaving NASA's Earth science programs intact and in place. (1/8)

ULA Wins USAF Atlas V Launch Contract (Source: Florida Today)
United Launch Alliance has won a $95.7 million Air Force contract to launch a National Reconnaissance Office satellite on an Atlas V rocket. This vehicle will launch in two to three years from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. ULA workers from Cape Canaveral will assist with the California launch. ULA's next launch, scheduled for Jan. 13, is a national security payload for the NRO aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 37 at the Cape. (1/8)

Ex-MSFC Officials Push for Ares (Source: Huntsville Times)
The Obama transition team heard from two former Marshall Space Flight Center officials about NASA's plans for rockets and extending the life of the space shuttle. Rex Geveden, president of Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. and a former Marshall deputy director, along with Shar Hendrick, a former Marshall liaison to Congress, briefed the transition team. The former Marshall employees are part of the Tennessee Valley Advocacy Committee, a local aerospace booster group. They were invited by the team to make the briefing, said Geveden, who was NASA associate administrator from 2005-2007. Marshall Space Flight Center has been chosen to design and manage the Ares program. (1/8)

NASA Chief: $3 Billion a Year Required for to Keep Shuttle Alive (Source: Flight Global)
Mike Griffin says extending the life of the space shuttle past its planned 2010 retirement to ferry crews and cargo to the space station will cost the agency $3 billion per year and pose a one in eight chance of losing a crew to a vehicle failure over the 10 flights needed to span the gap until the new Ares 1 man-rated booster goes operational in 2015.

Griffin said the while the proposal to use the shuttles from 2011-2015 at a total cost of $15 billion “deserves consideration”, as an engineer and program manager, he would have “better uses” for the money. Griffin says slightly more than $3 billion would accelerate the first Ares 1 missions by one year to 2014. “It can be done. Whether it ought to be done is another question,” he said of the shuttle extension, noting that even if the orbiter were to remain flying during the gap, the US would continue to have to rely on Russia for critical services to the station including providing a rescue module to return the crew to Earth. (1/8)

Black Holes Predate Galaxies (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Massive black holes found in the cores of galaxies were created before the galaxies themselves, astronomers reported this week. Previous research had indicated an nearly constant ratio between the masses of the central bulge of stars and gas in galaxies and the black holes at their cores, raising the question of whether the black hole formed after the galaxy did or if the galaxy formed around the black hole. New studies of the formation of the first galaxies in the first billion years after the Big Bang indicate that the black hole/bulge ratio is much larger, indicating that the black holes formed first. The mechanism that regulates the growth of the black holes and their galaxies has yet to be understood, astronomers said. (1/8)

NASA Use of "Military" Rockets Not So Revolutionary, Sources Say (Source: AIA)
Increased cooperation between NASA and the Pentagon might not be a huge stretch for the new administration, according to Scientific American. The magazine reports the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets being eyed as possible replacements for the space shuttle were not designed specifically for defense purposes, despite their current military uses. "The Atlas V and Delta IV rockets were developed by Lockheed and Boeing as commercial rockets to be used both by the government and by commercial and civil industries," says a spokesman for United Launch Alliance, the joint venture that builds the two rockets. (1/8)

Astronauts Threatened by Cosmic Rays as Sun Becomes Less Active (Source: Daily Mail)
Astronauts returning to the moon could be threatened by cosmic rays as a result of the sun becoming less active, scientists have said. The sun's ability to shield the solar system from harmful radiation could falter in the early 2020s, research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology claimed. At about the same time, the American space agency Nasa plans to send astronauts back to the moon. The sun has been relatively active for around 80 years. Scientists have now calculated that the active spell's total lifetime is likely to be between 95 and 116 years. Cosmic rays from deep in space are to some extent prevented from entering the solar system by the solar wind, a gale of atomic particles blasted out from the sun. (1/8)

U.S. Concerned Over China’s Military Space Programs (Source: Epoch Times)
New concerns are arising as China’s military-based space programs continue to grow. In 2007, the world was caught off guard when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the ruling regime in China, destroyed its Fengyun-1C spacecraft during a test of its anti-satellite (ASAT) system. “There’s a need for greater transparency of what the Chinese are doing. That’s somewhat made difficult by the large role the PLA plays in the programs,” said Scott Pace. “The real question is how China’s space program will evolve in the years ahead. Will it become a more normal program the way other civil space-bearing agencies have or will it stay pretty much a military program.” (1/8)

Northrop Combines Some California Units (Source: Torrance Daily Breeze)
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s two South Bay-based business sectors will merge as part of a larger corporate restructuring to streamline the business. Integrated Systems, the El Segundo-based maker of aircraft such as the Global Hawk, will join with Redondo Beach-based Space Technology, which builds government satellites and develops military lasers. The combined sector will be known as Aerospace Systems.

Two other Northrop business sectors also will combine. Information Technology and Mission Systems will form the new Information Systems sector. Mission Systems has a facility in Rancho Dominguez near Carson. The restructuring, which was effective Wednesday, reduces the number of Century City-based Northrop's business sectors from seven to five. (1/8)

China Making Leaps in Space (Source: Asia Times)
In 2009, China will be pursuing its ambitious plans for space in all sorts of ways. But in terms of missions and milestones, China will find it quite hard to surpass the stellar success of the spacewalk during the Shenzhou 7 mission in September. China ended 2008 with 11 successful launches, and set a new record for launches in a single year. China intends to set another new record this year. At least four new BeiDou-2 (Compass) satellites will be launched in 2009 by the team at the China Satellite Navigation Project Center. And a Russian launch vehicle will carry a Chinese micro-satellite into space in late 2009. If everything goes according to plan, Yinghuo-1, China's first Mars probe, will be another noteworthy achievement for the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering. (1/9)

SpaceX Plans Summer Falcon-9 Launch, Plans to Recapture Commercial Launches for Florida (Source: Florida Today)
SpaceX plans to launch the first of a larger version its Falcon rocket, the 188-foot Falcon 9, this summer from Cape Canaveral. That's a bit later than an earlier timetable, which had the launch set for spring. The first Falcon 9 has been assembled at the Cape and will be raised to vertical next month. Some 80 percent of the multi-billion dollar satellite launch business now goes to the Russians and Ukrainians, who have under-priced American companies, Musk said. "That's because the U.S. launch vehicles are not cost-competitive," Musk said Wednesday. "That's going to change with Falcon 9. There's actually a pretty big launch market out there."

Space Florida, which represents the state, has given SpaceX office space, consulting assistance and financial help to build a hangar. In addition to assisting in the development of Launch Complex 40, Space Florida has taken over Launch Complex 36, which it plans to turn into a second commercial launch pad. (1/8)

Editorial: NASA's Chief Paved the Way for His Exit by Dismissing Other Views (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Barring a reprieve from President-elect Barack Obama, Michael Griffin appears on his way out after nearly four years as NASA's administrator. It's high time for him to go. Mr. Griffin brought unmatched credentials as a scientist and engineer to the administrator's job when he took over in 2005. But his approach to NASA's next manned mission -- Constellation -- has been my-way-or-the-highway. Coupled with his cavalier attitude toward chronic cost overruns in other programs, he has become the wrong man to steer the agency forward. His impatience with criticism is a troubling throwback to the days when dissenting views at NASA were suppressed, with disastrous consequences.

Mr. Griffin has asserted that Ares I, a rocket he helped design from parts of the shuttle, is the best way to send astronauts back to the moon. But that assertion has been called into question in interviews and documents obtained by Sentinel reporters that indicate modified military rockets could do the job sooner and cheaper. Visit http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-ed08109jan08,0,7879150.story to view the editorial. (1/8)

Editorial: Obama and New Administrator Should Stick to Current Return-to-Moon Plan (Source: Florida Today)
Keenly intelligent, driven, abrasive. The words all describe NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, who assumed the post in 2005 and has successfully managed a trio of immeasurably difficult tasks. Safely returning the shuttles to flight following the Columbia disaster, overseeing the transition to the program’s end and developing NASA’s next-generation Constellation spacecraft to return astronauts to the moon.

What had been expected for weeks became clear Tuesday: Griffin is planning to leave Jan. 20 as President-elect Barack Obama selects a new agency boss and, within the next few months, makes decisions that will set the course of America’s manned space exploration effort for a generation or more to come... For Constellation, the Obama administration should stick with the current plan of building a new fleet of Ares 1 rockets and Orion manned spacecraft and try to close the five-year gap between the time the shuttles retire and Ares-Orion become operational. Click here to view the editorial. (1/8)

Kranz Editorial: Obama Should Keep Griffin as NASA's Leader (Source: Houston Chronicle)
President-elect Barack Obama faces challenges that will define his administration for years to come. His Cabinet selections indicate that he is building an outstanding leadership team...Soon he must decide to extend the tenure of the current administrator, Mike Griffin, or select a new NASA administrator... It is critical in the development of any major space program to have a competent team periodically assess technical issues and program progress. Concluding my Senate testimony I spoke of the necessity to continue with the current NASA leadership team stating, "Mike Griffin is the finest leader I have seen at the helm of NASA for the last two decades."

He is the leader the agency deserves — one who has the respect of all levels of the organization, the respect of the congressional committees responsible for NASA oversight, and has the technical and program management ability to establish priorities, course correct as necessary, and make the "go, no go" decisions. (1/8)

Lunar Team Conducts Tests in Hawaii (Source: Astrobiology Magazine)
On Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, which rises 9,000 feet above sea level, there is a mid-level base facility where scientists can pretend they are on the moon. Hawaii’s volcanic terrain, soil and remote environment provide an ideal environment for testing instruments and equipment that someday may be used by astronauts at a lunar base. Recently, a team of scientists working for the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) demonstrated its first field test for NASA's In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Project. Click here to view the article. (1/8)

NASA Mines Lunar Regolith Simulant in Montana (Source: NASA)
A team from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is working with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to develop a realistic moon dust substitute, or simulant, in support of NASA's future lunar exploration. At the Stillwater Mine in Nye, Montana, team members pound on boulder sized rocks to break them into manageable chunks, dump these chunks into buckets, and lug the buckets over to pickup trucks containing reinforced containers to hold the rocks. The pickups carry the rocks down the mountain for loading onto 18 wheelers that transport tons of the material to the USGS in Denver. The USGS makes the simulant by crushing and grinding the rocks and blending in small amounts of natural minerals according to a well-researched "recipe" to approximate the make up of genuine moondust and moon dirt. (1/8)

Venezuela Becomes Satellite Power (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Venezuela becomes a satellite power this weekend - when it's scheduled to take full control of the Simon Bolivar telecommunications satellite, according to news reports. The Chinese-built satellite was launched last fall from China. The project included the training of Venezuelan satellite technicians and construction of ground facilities. The geostationary satellite has a service area from southern Mexico to the middle of Argentina and Chile, and will be used in telecommunications as well as social development programs, a prime interest of Venezuela's leader, Hugo Chavez. Venezuela will become the fourth Latin American country - after Brazil, Argentina and Mexico - to have such satellite technology, according to the reports. (1/8)