November 10 News Items

LA Names Buzz Aldrin Honorary Consul General to Moon (Source: AP)
Los Angeles County has given moonwalker Buzz Aldrin a new title: Honorary consul general to the moon. Forty years after Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first men to walk on the moon, county supervisors on Tuesday gave him the title while saluting the contribution of veterans to America's space program. Aldrin thanked the supervisors and called on the federal government to lead an international effort to colonize another planet, clean up space debris and pursue commercial opportunities in space. (11/10)

Administration Seeks Input on Aeronautics R&D Plan (Source: OSTP)
The Aeronautics Science and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council has issued a notice of request for public review and comment on the draft biennial update to the National Plan for Aeronautics Research and Development and Related Infrastructure (R&D Plan). Since the initial publication in 2007, the R&D Plan has become incorporated within the planning process of the Federal departments and agencies, which in turn helps coordinate and guide national-level aeronautics research and development. The biennial update is part of the continuing process to accommodate advances and necessary changes to the R&D Plan. Public comments are requested by Nov. 17 at http://www.ostp.gov/nstc/aeroplans/ (11/10)

Skydiving From Space (Source: Orbital Outfitters)
Orbital Outfitters is partnered with a company called SpaceDiver on one of the world's most ambitious projects: diving from space. The goal of SpaceDiver is to create the systems and infrastructure necessary to allow a human being to accomplish an emergency (or other) egress from one of the NewSpace sub-orbital spacecraft and return to Earth safely - to bail out and skydive from the edge of space - or as it will be branded, “SpaceDive.” The project itself will demonstrate this capability through a series of progressive flights originating from NewSpace rocket powered vehicles at progressively higher altitudes thereby developing and demonstrating capability. The high point of this work will be a major media event focused around the breaking of the world skydive record of 102,800 Ft. set by Col. Joe Kittinger in 1960. Click here for more. (11/10)

Skydiving From Space (Source: Orbital Outfitters)
Orbital Outfitters is partnered with a company called SpaceDiver on one of the world's most ambitious projects: diving from space. The goal of SpaceDiver is to create the systems and infrastructure necessary to allow a human being to accomplish an emergency (or other) egress from one of the NewSpace sub-orbital spacecraft and return to Earth safely - to bail out and skydive from the edge of space - or as it will be branded, “SpaceDive.” The project itself will demonstrate this capability through a series of progressive flights originating from NewSpace rocket powered vehicles at progressively higher altitudes thereby developing and demonstrating capability. The high point of this work will be a major media event focused around the breaking of the world skydive record of 102,800 Ft. set by Col. Joe Kittinger in 1960. Click here for more. (11/10)

Nowak Receives Light Sentence in Orlando Courtroom Plea Deal (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The former astronaut arrested in an attack against her romantic rival has pleaded guilty to lesser counts. Before a packed courtroom 1:30 p.m., Lisa Marie Nowak, 46, pleaded guilty to counts of third-degree burglary of a conveyance and misdemeanor battery. She was originally charged with more-serious counts of attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault in addition to misdemeanor battery. Prosecutors dropped a count of burglary with assault. She was sentenced to two days in Orange County Jail with credit for time served and one year of probation. She must stay away from victim Colleen Shipman and has to write a "sincere" letter of apology to her within 10 days. (11/10)

Free Embry-Riddle Lecture on Life in Outer Space, Nov. 16 (Source: Daytona Beach News Journal)
An expert on the possibility of life in outer space will speak Monday at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in a lecture that is open to the public free of charge. Bruce Jakosky, professor and associate director of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, will speak on "Science, Society and the Search for Life Elsewhere" as part of the university honors program's distinguished speaker lecture series. Jakosky will speak at 7 p.m. at the ERAU Daytona Beach campus. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Astrobiology, an advisor to NASA on space exploration and astrobiology and has advised major national museums on exhibits about extraterrestrial life. (11/10)

Aldrin: Ares 1-X Only "Looked" Spectacular (Source: Huffington Post)
Well, it looked spectacular. I'm referring to NASA's recent launch of the Ares 1-X, billed as the prototype of the Ares 1 as a crew launch vehicle. The rocket is said to have performed as planned, and ushered in the era of the Ares rockets to replace the Space Shuttle next year. Only it won't. In fact, the much-hyped Ares 1-X was much ado about nothing. Yes, the rocket that thundered aloft from NASA's Launch Pad 39B sure looked like an Ares 1. But that's where the resemblance stops. Turns out the solid booster was - literally - bought from the Space Shuttle program, since a five-segment booster being designed for Ares wasn't ready.

So they put a fake can on top of the four-segmented motor to look like the real thing. Since the real Ares' upper stage rocket engine, called the J-2X wasn't ready either, they mounted a fake upper stage. No Orion capsule was ready, so - you guessed it - they mounted a fake capsule with a real-looking but fake escape rocket that wouldn't have worked if the booster had failed. Since the guidance system for Ares wasn't ready either they went and bought a unit from the Atlas rocket program and used it instead. Oh yes, the parachutes to recover the booster were the real thing -- and one of the three failed, causing the booster to slam into the ocean too fast and banging the thing up. So, why you might ask, did NASA bother to spend almost half a billion dollars in developing and launching the Ares 1-X? The answer: Politics. (11/10)

Aldrin: Different Launcher Approach Needed (Source: Huffington Post)
What do we need? One rocket for all our deep space missions. Save the taxpayer's money by canceling the Ares 1 and V. So how do we get to the space station without Ares 1? Let the commercial space firms develop their own crew launchers, and crew vehicles. Why should Uncle Sam be in the people hauling business? Here's my plan -- and yes, I am a rocket scientist -- cancel Ares 1 now and the version of the Orion capsule that is supposed to fly astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station. Instead, unleash the commercial sector by paying them for transportation services to the station. Could be capsules. Could be winged ships like the Space Shuttle, capable of flying back to a runway with its crews and cargoes, not splashing in the ocean like a cannonball.

With the money saved, start developing a true heavy lifter worthy of the Saturn V's successor. Could be a side-mount rocket like the Shuttles, with a tank-and-booster set flanked by a payload pod jammed full of cargo-or a space capsule with astronauts in tow. Or new upper stages capable of deep space missions. Let's open 'er up to a true competition, with designs from inside -- and outside -- NASA. If we bypass a foolish Moon race and let the development of the Moon be an international affair, we will have time to refine the super booster to make sure it is compatible with our deep space goals, like missions flying by comets or asteroids -- or to the moons of Mars. Such a rocket would be ready when the time comes to colonize Mars. No more false starts and dead end rockets. (11/10)

Ohio Back in Space (Source: Toledo Blade)
Whatever ultimately happens to NASA's grand program to send astronauts back to the Moon by 2020, Ohio has secured its place in the dream mission with its role in the successful test launch of the agency's new moon rocket. It's a point of pride for the state that Glenn Research personnel in NASA's Brook Park facility near Cleveland designed and built the upper stage mockup of the test rocket that recently completed a near flawless flight. The Ares-1-X, which lifted from Cape Canaveral in Florida, is the model for a new generation of booster rockets intended to carry humans back to the moon and perhaps other destinations in the solar system. In just three years, from conception to flying machine, an engineering team at NASA Glenn produced a prototype of Ares 1, the rocket slated to replace the space shuttle as NASA's primary space vehicle over the next several years. (11/10)

Intelsat Touts ProtoStar-1’s Revenue Potential (Source: Space News)
Intelsat officials defended their $210 million cash purchase of the ProtoStar-1 satellite, which is already in orbit, urging investors to see the deal in light of the bandwidth shortage in Africa and the launch vehicle delays that have kept the Intelsat IS-14 satellite grounded and cost the company in lost revenue this year. Intelsat declined to say how fast they expect to fill ProtoStar-1, to be named Intelsat 25 and moved into an Atlantic Ocean region orbital slot by early 2010. But they said the price they paid at the ProtoStar auction, which was far higher than expected, was well worth it given the satellite’s revenue-generating potential. (11/10)

NASA Langley's Latest Gadget (Source: DailyPress.com)
A gigantic block with portholes, NASA Langley Research Center's latest undertaking looks like a geometric escape pod. But you won't find astronauts inside its metallic walls. Instead you'll see something that resembles an engine suspended above a steel table. This is the guts of the Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, a $2.5 million hands-free fabrication and welding machine that could revolutionize the way airplanes and spacecraft parts are built. Here's how it works. Using a computer, engineers draw a three-dimensional object. The drawing is sliced into layers which the beam traces. Meanwhile, metal wire, such as aluminum or titanium, is fed into the beam to build the layers. Heat from the beam — it can reach 3,000 degrees — briefly liquefies the metals before they settle into the desired shape. (11/10)

Telesat Now Expects Anik F1 to Last Until 2016 Despite Flaw (Source: Space News)
Satellite fleet operator Telesat of Canada said its Anik F1 satellite, which has been the subject of numerous legal battles with manufacturer Boeing and insurance underwriters since its 2000 launch, will operate until 2016 — its contracted retirement date — despite the solar-panel design flaw that had been expected to cut short its service life. The Ottawa-based company, which on Nov. 9 reported double-digit increases in revenue and operating profit for the nine months ending Sept. 30, nonetheless said it is continuing arbitration against insurance underwriters for unpaid claims totaling $18 million related to the Anik F1 solar-array problem. (11/10)

Russia Could Benefit From Space Junk Cleanup (Source: Interfax)
Removing defunct space objects from orbit, using a space "garbage collector" could be a profitable business for Russia - a country which possesses modern space technologies, and Russia should pay attention to this unexplored market, Energia rocket and space corporation director Vitaly Lopota said. "Space is filled with 1,200 non-operating objects. The orbit resource and positions have almost been tapped and we need to do something about it. We think a cleanup of just one position will bring us between $20 million and $50 million, and secure our "territorial" interests. Once we remove the junk, we can locate an object in the vacant position," Lopota said. The space cleanup market could grow to $3 billion a year by 2020, he said. (11/10)

Plea Deal Offered in Astronaut Love Triangle Case (Source: CNN)
A plea deal has been offered in the case of a former astronaut accused of being involved in a well-publicized, violent love triangle, prosecutors said. The former astronaut, Lisa Nowak, is scheduled to be in a Florida courtroom Tuesday to see whether she will accept the deal, said Randy Means, executive director of the Orange County State Attorney's Office. "An offer has been made with certain conditions, and we will find out [Tuesday] if those conditions will be accepted in a plea, when Ms. Nowak appears at the pretrial conference." Means said. (11/10)

Industry Experts Predict Space Holidays Before 2038 (Source: Travel Daily News)
World Travel Market has asked some of the worldwide travel industry's most senior executives to predict the next three decades of the travel and tourism industry. Here, we ask if the final frontier of space travel will be achieved in the next 30 years. World Travel Market Chairman Fiona Jeffrey said: "After countless false dawns, space travel will be a reality with people escaping to away-from-it-all holidays in space hotels located above the earth. "It is not a question of if, it's just a matter of time and money - but it's definitely coming." (11/10)

New Russian Docking Port Launches Toward Space Station (Source: Space.com)
A Russian rocket launched into space Tuesday carrying a brand-new docking port for the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the unmanned Mini-Research Module 2, a new multipurpose room for the space station that can serve as a docking port, storage closet or an airlock for Russian spacewalks. "This is additional space to store equipment and other things that are on board the station, but the primary objective is for us to use the module for extravehicular activity." It is due to dock at the space station Thursday. (11/10)