January 25 News Items

Japan to Develop Air-Launch System (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun)
Japan's government has launched a project to develop a midair rocket-launching system that can place satellites in orbit. The project is aimed at meeting the global demand for low-cost, small satellites that can be developed and produced relatively quickly. Observers say the project, if successful, would help Japan maintain its international competitiveness in the rocket-launching business. The midair firing system does not require large launch facilities on the ground and therefore allows for greater flexibility of launches by reducing the impact of restricting factors such as negotiating with local fishery cooperatives on the timing of a launch. (1/25)

Challenges Loom as Obama Seeks Space Weapons Ban (Source: Reuters)
President Barack Obama's pledge to seek a worldwide ban on weapons in space marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy while posing the tricky issue of defining whether a satellite can be a weapon. Moments after Obama's inauguration last week, the White House website was updated to include policy statements on a range of issues, including a pledge to restore U.S. leadership on space issues and seek a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites.

It also promised to look at threats to U.S. satellites, contingency plans to keep information flowing from them, and what steps are needed to protect spacecraft against attack. The issue is being closely watched by Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp, the biggest U.S. defense contractors, and other companies involved in military and civilian space contracts. Watchdog groups and even some defense officials welcomed the statement, which echoed Obama's campaign promises, but said it would take time to hammer out a comprehensive new strategy.

Enacting a global ban on space weapons could prove even harder. For instance, it was difficult to define exactly what constituted a "weapon" because even seemingly harmless weather tracking satellites could be used to slam into and disable other satellites, said two U.S. officials involved in the area who were not authorized to speak publicly. Click here to view the article. (1/25)

Central Florida Freshmen Join Space Subcommittee (Source: Florida Today)
A press release from the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology confirmed the appointment of Suzanne Kosmas (D-New Smyrna) and Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) to the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics. (1/24)

Posey Retains Weldon's Space-Saavy Staff (Source: ERAU)
Although he may not serve on the House Science Committee, newly elected Space Coast Congressman Bill Posey has retained key staff members from his predecessor, former Congressman Dave Weldon, who had become an important voice on space policy issues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Posey (R-Rockledge) was recently appointed to the influential House Financial Services Committee. (1-25)

NASA To Test New-Generation Space Rocket (Source: NPR)
Back when he was a high school student, in April 1981, Robert Ess says he was absolutely transfixed by NASA's very first flight of its new space shuttle. "I was obsessed with it," he says. The aging shuttle fleet is scheduled to be mothballed next year, after construction of the international space station is complete. Now Ess is obsessed with the first test flight of the shuttle's replacement. This time around, though, it's his job. Ess works at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., where he's in charge of the Ares I-X mission, an unmanned test flight scheduled for July.

NASA's plan is that the rocket will ultimately carry up a crew capsule similar to the one that took astronauts up during the Apollo era. The experimental version of the rocket, during its first test flight, will be capped by a carefully engineered dummy version of the crew capsule. The mock-up is exactly the right size, shape and weight, but "the only passengers are sensors." A military plane will take the capsule down to Florida on Thursday. There it will join other pieces of hardware, some real, some just fake stand-ins. If all goes well, workers will stack them all up this spring to create a rocket that stands more than 320 feet tall. (1/25)

Spy Satellites Turn Their Gaze Onto Each Other (Source: New Scientist)
Spy satellites have a new role: as well as watching us they are now spying on each other. The Pentagon admitted last week that it is using two covert inspection satellites developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to assess damage to a failed geostationary satellite - something no one suspected the US could do. If such satellites can get that close to a target, they could probably attack it. DOD says its Mitex micro-satellites, launched in 2006, have been jetting around the geostationary ring and have jointly inspected DSP 23, which was designed to pinpoint clandestine missile launches and nuclear tests, but which stopped working a year after its Nov. 2007 launch. The micro-satellites are trying to nail the problem. (1/25)

NASA, Neighbors Plan to Pause on Accident Anniversaries (Source: Florida Today)
NASA and the city of Titusville will pay tribute this week to American astronauts who lost their lives in the line of duty. With the anniversaries of the 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire, the 1986 Challenger explosion and the 2003 Columbia accident all in the next eight days, NASA will stage a Day of Remembrance ceremony on Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. (1/25)

NASA Safety Probe Shared with Other Space Agencies (Source: Houston Chronicle)
After Columbia's loss, a study team analyzed every aspect of the mission's failure. Some, like Kandy Jarvis, a Lockheed Martin astronomer turned imagery analyst, examined videos of the Columbia that were shot from the ground as it broke apart. Others analyzed the wreckage. Still others reviewed medical studies. All worked on the inquiry while continuing at their daily jobs. The recommendations included calls for safer spacesuits and helmets, stronger restraints, and air systems and parachutes that would activate automatically. They have been, or are being, implemented, NASA officials said.

When the experts were finished gathering the data and conducting tests, they set about producing a narrative. The writing itself, Melroy said, took a year, chiefly to achieve the clarity and voice that was acceptable to everyone. The result was a compelling account of failing metal and materials under conditions too extreme for men and women to survive. Next, the team wanted every national space program — and every private spacefaring company, as well — aware of its findings and recommendations.

“We want this to be a go-to document,” said Nigel Packham, a NASA safety specialist and team leader. “It may not guarantee absolute survivability, but our hope is the findings and the implementation of what we recommend will improve the chances of crew survival.” NASA is sending copies of the 440-page report to 18 state-run space agencies. “That’s how strongly we feel about this,” Melroy said. “NASA is sending them a hard copy with a note that says, 'Please look at this.’ ” (1/25)

NOAA-N Prime Atop Delta II Rocket Ready For Feb. 4 Launch in California (Source: NASA)
The launch of the NOAA-N Prime polar-orbiting weather satellite for NASA and NOAA, aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 4. Liftoff will be from Space Launch Complex 2, SLC-2, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The 10-minute launch window extends from 2:22:01 - 2:32:01 a.m. PST. The NOAA-N Prime satellite, built for NASA by Lockheed Martin, will improve weather forecasting and monitor environmental events around the world. NOAA-N Prime is the fifth and last in the current series of five polar-orbiting satellites with improved imaging and sounding capabilities. (1/25)

Obama Transition Officials Join NASA as Advisers (Source: Space News)
Two members of U.S. President Barack Obama's NASA transition team have accepted political appointments at the U.S. space agency's Washington headquarters. Alan Ladwig and George Whitesides began work Jan. 21 as senior advisers to the NASA administrator, who the Obama administration has yet to name. Ladwig, a space consultant who resigned his position with Whitney, Bradley & Brown in November, was NASA's associate administrator for policy and plans during the 1990s. Prior to joining the NASA transition team, Whitesides took a leave of absence from the National Space Society, where he was executive director since 2004. (1/23)

NASA Schedule Problem with Back-To-Back Interplanetary Atlas Launches (Source: Space News)
NASA officials announced in December that they had given up trying to finish the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover in time to make its long-planned October 2009 launch window. Because Earth and Mars are in favorable alignment for launch every two years, forfeiting the window meant postponing liftoff of the $1.9 billion mission to 2011.

The ideal 2011 launch window for MSL, however, comes just two months after the roughly $1 billion Jupiter-bound Juno mission is scheduled to lift off from the same launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The two-month separation between launches normally would not pose a problem, but it falls short of the 90 days the U.S. government's launch provider, Denver-based United Launch Alliance (ULA), currently requires to complete launch integration for a nuclear-powered spacecraft like MSL.

Nuclear-powered spacecraft are shipped without their power supply, making for additional work once the hardware reaches the launch site, said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division. At the request of NASA and the U.S. Air Force, ULA has examined what it would take to shorten the ground processing time for launches of nuclear-powered spacecraft from 90 days to 75, and for non-nuclear-powered spacecraft from 60 days to 45. (1/23)

Tourist Trips to Space Station May Continue (Source: New Scientist)
It's getting crowded up there. The International Space Station is set to double the size of its crew this year, and news reports this week suggest the Russian space agency Roscosmos plans to stop launching space tourists because of the added traffic. Some have speculated this decision could throw a wrench in the plans of Space Adventures, a firm that has made a brisk business of selling seats on Russian Soyuz missions. The last flight the firm has announced will take place on 25 March, when software executive Charles Simonyi will return to the station for a second stay.

Rented seats may no longer be available. But Space Adventures says it has been in contact with the Russian Federal Space Agency since the news broke, and it still plans on going forward with a trip aboard its own Soyuz capsule as early as 2011. The fully commercial mission, announced in 2008, would rent pilot services to take two passengers into space aboard a purchased capsule. The "news has no impact on our plans for a dedicated Space Adventures Soyuz mission," the company's president, Eric Anderson, wrote in an e-mail.

That seems like good news for investors like Google's Sergey Brin, who has made a $5 million down payment for a seat on a future flight. But will there be a place for Brin to stay? Flight Global's Rob Coppinger speculates a tourist-only Soyuz might have trouble finding room to dock with the space station and notes a commercial Soyuz mission would require the blessing (and likely the paid services) of both NASA and Roscosmos. (1/23)

University of Delaware Plans Center for the Study of Space Radiation Effects (Source: U of D)
Researchers in the University of Delaware's Department of Physics and Astronomy have been awarded $750,000 by NASA to develop a Delaware Center for the Study of Space Radiation Effects. The NASA provides funding to strengthen research programs in states seeking to become more competitive in their aerospace and aerospace-related research activities. Science Principal Investigator Bill Matthaeus and Delaware's NASA EPSCoR Director Dermott Mullan, professors in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, designed the project to build on existing Delaware expertise in space radiation and develop new multidisciplinary connections. (1/23)

Indian Rocket Launches Paralyze Fishermen (Source: Express Buzz)
As India reached for the skies and the moon, the fishermen in Palaverkadu region (Pulicut lake) kept their fingers crossed, not for the success of the space missions but for the authorities to let them earn their livelihood. For, they were barred from going to the sea. Now, they are saying enough is enough and demanding a compensation of Rs 200 per day for each fisherman who was prevented from putting out to the sea in view of the various rocket launches from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. The ban temporarily puts 15,000 fishermen in Palaverkadu taluk - who go out to the sea each day - out of business. In all, 40,000 people are affected by the ban. (1/23)