Big Air Force Contract for EELV (Source: DOD)
United Launch Services, Littleton, Colo., is being awarded a $1,130,820,000 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for launch capability, engineering support, program management, launch and range site activities, mission integration, and mission specific design and qualification effort for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Program from July 1, 2011 through Sep. 30, 2012. Work will be performed at Littleton, Colo., and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Funds in the amount of $300,450,918 have been obligated, which includes $187,500 in funds that will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. SMC/LRK, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the contracting activity. (6/30)
Florida Company Leads Research on Electric Jet (Source: Florida Today)
The electric jetliner. It's not a 1960s rock band, the subject of a science fiction tale or the punchline of a joke. It is, or at least could be, a future transportation option made possible in part by a Palm Bay technology company. Aided by a $900,000 grant from NASA, Advanced Magnet Lab's scientists will develop a computer model to tell the agency how to build electric motors and generators small yet powerful enough to drive the jet's turbofans.
NASA's goal is to reduce fuel consumption and pollution emissions. "They're looking for the next technology," AML senior research scientist Philippe Masson said. "The whole concept relies on the validity of that (electric) motor. It's going to be very difficult to reach those goals with conventional technologies."
During the first year of the three-year project, AML will focus on computer analysis. Working models will be built in the second and third years. With the NASA grant and other projects, including a Department of Energy award that could bring in up to $700,000 for work on large wind turbine coils, the Brevard company with eight workers expects to add 50 to 100 employees during the next two years. (6/30)
States Step Up Roles in Space (Source: Stateline)
Lately, NASA’s launches at Wallops have been modest—mostly weather balloons and research rockets. But the state governments of Virginia and Maryland are bringing more ambitious projects back to the remote island. Since 2006, four Minotaur 1 rockets have taken off from the states’ jointly operated Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS).
Five of the eight FAA licenses to launch rockets into space belong to state governments. The state-run sites, in addition to Wallops Island, are in Florida, Oklahoma, Alaska and New Mexico. Other jurisdictions in Florida and California hold licenses, too. But the license is no guarantee of commercial success, especially with so many of the facilities angling for the same customers. Space Florida, for example, suffered a severe setback after NASA decided to use rockets launched from Wallops to resupply the space station.
And the competition is especially fierce among facilities trying to lure suborbital flights for space tourists. In Oklahoma, pre-existing facilities are the selling point. Bill Khourie, executive director of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority, argues that the state’s converted Strategic Air Command base offers benefits that cannot be found anywhere else, including control over its own, non-military airspace and a runway that is nearly a mile longer and 100 feet wider than the one in New Mexico. (6/30)
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics to Eliminate About 1,500 Positions (Source: Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin will reduce employment across its Aeronautics business area as part of a plan to improve the affordability of its products and increase operational efficiency. Lockheed Martin currently has about 28,000 employees at its principal Aeronautics sites in Texas, Georgia and California and at six smaller locations in as many states.
Reductions may occur across the enterprise, with the greatest impacts occurring at the larger sites. An organizational assessment will determine how to trim the organization with a target reduction of approximately 1,500 employees. (6/30)
ESA Forced To Defer Full-scale Work on 2016 Mars Orbiter (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency (ESA) on June 30 withdrew its proposal to begin full-scale work on a 2016 Mars orbiter mission with NASA following receipt of a letter from NASA’s administrator saying the U.S. agency could not commit to a companion 2018 Mars rover mission, a senior ESA official said June 30.
The decision by ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain to remove the ExoMars contract decision from the agenda of ESA’s Industrial Policy Committee, which met June 29-30, illustrates the continued instability of the joint ESA-NASA Mars exploration program that in principle was decided two years ago. (6/30)
Ariane 5 Set to Launch on Another Tandem Mission (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Two television broadcasting satellites to serve Europe and Japan moved to a South America launch pad Thursday, ready to blast off aboard an Ariane 5 rocket Friday evening. The 165-foot-tall Ariane rocket rolled 1.7 miles from the final assembly building to the ELA-3 launch pad Thursday, then workers began connecting the vehicle to the facility's electrical and fueling system. Liftoff is scheduled for 5:43 p.m. EDT Friday on the expendable rocket's fourth flight of the year. Satellites for European and Japanese operators are stacked inside the launcher's nose cone for the journey to space. (6/30)
Last Shuttle Crew has its Hands Full (Source: Reuters)
The four astronauts assigned to the last mission of NASA's 30-year-long space shuttle program aren't just burdened with the weight of history: They're expected to transfer four tons of supplies from the shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station in just a few days' time, the kind of job that's usually done with a six- or seven-person crew. They have to be ready to take shelter on the station for months, in the event that something goes wrong with their ride. And as if that weren't enough, they're being inundated with requests for tickets to watch the last-ever liftoff of America's winged spaceship. (6/30)
Inner Space is Useful. Outer Space is History (Source: Economist)
How big is the Earth? Any encyclopedia will give you an answer: its equatorial diameter is 12,756km, or, for those who prefer to think that way, 7,926 miles. Ah, but then there is the atmosphere. Should that count? Perhaps the planet’s true diameter is actually nearer 13,000km, including all its air. But even that may no longer be an adequate measure. For the Earth now reaches farther still.
The vacuum surrounding it buzzes with artificial satellites, forming a sort of technosphere beyond the atmosphere. Many form a ring like Saturn’s at a distance of 36,000km, in geostationary orbit. The vision being sold in the 1950s and 1960s was that other planets were there for the taking. That the taking would begin in the lifetimes of people then alive was widely assumed to be true.
No longer. It is quite conceivable that 36,000km will prove the limit of human ambition. It is equally conceivable that the fantasy-made-reality of human space flight will return to fantasy. It is likely that the Space Age is over. Today’s space cadets will, no doubt, oppose that claim vigorously. They will, in particular, point to the private ventures of people like Elon Musk in America and Sir Richard Branson in Britain, who hope to make human space flight commercially viable. Click here. (6/30)
NASA Administrator Selling Houston Area Home (Source: BlockShopper)
Charles F. Bolden, Jr. and his wife, Alexis, have listed for sale a four-bedroom, 4.5-bath home at 14111 Lake Scene Trail in Clear Lake for $699,000. The Boldens acquired the property in April 2003. The 4,940-square-foot house was built in 1994 in the Bay Oaks subdivision. (6/30)
Government Sues Apollo 14 Astronaut Over Lunar Camera (Source: Reuters)
The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction. The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court on Wednesday, accuses Edgar Mitchell of illegally possessing the camera and attempting to sell it for profit.
In March, NASA learned that the British auction house Bonhams was planning to sell the camera at an upcoming Space History Sale, according to the suit. The item was labeled "Movie Camera from the Lunar Surface" and billed as one of two cameras from the Apollo 14's lunar module Antares. The lot description said the item came "directly from the collection" of pilot Edgar Mitchell and had a pre-sale estimate of $60,000 to $80,000, the suit said.
Mitchell was a lunar module pilot on Apollo 14, which launched its nine-day mission in 1971 under the command of Alan Shepard. The sixth person to walk on the moon, Mitchell is now retired and runs a website selling his autographed picture. (6/30)
AIA Calls for Continued Aerospace Investment (Source: AIA)
Former FAA Administrator and current President and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, Marion C. Blakey, called for accelerated implementation of FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System and increased U.S. investment in research and development to avoid losing our leadership in aerospace and defense.
Blakey also said that it was important for the aerospace industry to underscore the critical role of aerospace and defense in supporting our nation and economy, especially during ongoing budget debates. AIA is launching a campaign called "Second to None" to ensure that Congress and other officials understand that the industry is a perishable national asset. Editor's Note: "Second to None" is also the name of a Huntsville campaign to maximize NASA spending and programs at Marshall Space Flight Center. (6/30)
Moon Express Conducts Flight Test of Lunar Lander with NASA (Source: On Orbit)
Moon Express, Inc. today announced a successful flight test of a prototype lunar lander system being developed in partnership with NASA. Controlled flight tests of the Lander Test Vehicle (LTV) allow Moon Express to assess lunar vehicle design, including guidance, navigation and control software and new landing leg concepts designed by Moon Express engineers.
The company signed a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA last year to invest over $500K into the commercialization of technology developed by the agency. The flight test marks an important milestone in the collaborative agreement, demonstrating that innovative public-private partnerships can be utilized to establish new capabilities of mutual benefit to commercial space companies and NASA. (6/30)
NASA Funding Mired In Budget Politics (Source: Aviation Week)
With a lingering stalemate on the deficit and debt ceiling and leftover problems from the previous fiscal year, developing a budget to fund NASA for the coming fiscal year is messier than usual. “It’s a quagmire,” says Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), chair of the Senate Appropriations Commerce Justice Science subcommittee. “It’s a fiscal quagmire.”
The committee is still sorting through the fiscal 2011 budget, as NASA only just recently submitted its spending plan for fiscal 2011 to Congress. Meanwhile, Congress and the White House have yet to reach a deal on how to address the deficit and the debt ceiling. Without that deal, the Senate has not provided a budget resolution, withholding guidance to the appropriations committees for how much money individual agencies will receive in fiscal 2012. (6/30)
Minotaur Launches Military Satellite from Virginia (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Minotaur rocket launched a small military satellite late Wednesday evening from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia. It released the ORS-1 satellite into low Earth orbit about 12 minutes later. The satellite, the first operational spacecraft for the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, will provide tactical imagery directly to troops in the field.
The launch took place near the end of the three-hour launch window because of problems with ground support equipment and the rocket's flight termination system. A previous launch attempt Tuesday was scrubbed by stormy weather. (6/30)
Take an Orbit Around the Kennedy Space Center (Source: Palm Beach Post)
After it lands, the world's only re-usable space vehicle will fade into NASA history, taking a large chunk of the U.S. space program with it. It's a blow that has sent the Space Coast's space-based economy into a stall, then a steep dive as NASA sheds thousands of workers.
But the end of the shuttle program that built the International Space Station and saved the Hubble Space Telescope shouldn't mean the end of the area's tourism. A new $100 million Space Shuttle exhibit is projected to open in the summer of 2013 at the Kennedy Space Center, featuring Atlantis suspended from the ceiling of the largest building the visitor's complex has ever constructed.
A visit to KSC is a fascinating journey through the height of American power and innovation, studded with demonstrations and even a simulated shuttle launch. This summer's Star Trek exhibit, part of the KSC's Sci Fi Summer, isn't nearly as compelling as the opportunity to crash the lunar lander into the moon, as I did in a simulation. Or the realization that even in space, I have a lead foot, as I tried to dock the shuttle's orbiter with the space station. (6/30)
SpaceX Brings Affordable Spaceflight Within Reach (Source: Daily Caller)
Add one more high-flying achievement to the resume of Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk: Heinlein Prize Trust winner. The award, named for science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, recognizes advancements in the commercial spaceflight industry. Musk received his prize Wednesday.
The honor has only been bestowed once before, in 2006 to Peter Diamandis, another significant figure in the push for private spaceflight. The trust that administers the prize has been searching for another worthy innovator – and they found one in Musk, who is the CEO of Space Exploration Technologies, the California company developing rockets for missions to low-Earth orbit. (6/30)
Continued Battles Over NASA's New Rocket Hurting Space Goals (Source: Florida Today)
This is no way to run a space program. Over the past week, members of the U.S. Senate and senior NASA officials have been engaged in a game of legal chicken. The issue? The agency’s reluctance to turn over documents about the status of its heavy-lift rocket program. Senators Rockefeller and Hutchison threatened to subpoena the reports if they didn’t get them Monday.
The agency acquiesced but not before suspicion deepened in the Senate on just how hard NASA is pursuing heavy-lift, which was the key to a congressional compromise last year on a new NASA policy that includes using private rockets to ferry crews to the International Space Station.
Ultimately, heavy-lift could create an estimated 2,000 jobs at the spaceport where the rocket would be assembled, tested and launched. Click here to read the editorial. (6/30)
Universe’s Most Distant Quasar Found (Source: Cosmos)
A newly discovered quasar is the most distant that has ever been seen, and has left researchers puzzled as to how the black hole at its centre could have grown so large, so fast. This quasar, seen as it was around 12.9 billion years ago, could provide a vital probe for understanding the state of the early universe. (6/30)
Shuttle Debuted Amid Unknown Dangers (Source: Discovery)
In 1981, two astronauts launched aboard the shuttle's maiden flight, but there was a 1-in-9 chance of them not surviving. When astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen strapped themselves inside Space Shuttle Columbia for the Shuttle Program's debut mission in 1981 (STS-1), it was the first time people had been aboard for a spaceship's trial run.
"[NASA] did discuss whether we should go modify it so we could fly unmanned. That was a serious discussion," Crippen said. "But both John Young and I lobbied hard that they ought to put us onboard because we thought the chance for success was much better having people on there." (6/30)
Mars Missions Encounter Hitch (Source: BBC)
US and European efforts to send joint missions to Mars have encountered yet another hitch. A letter from Washington formally committing to combined ventures at the planet this decade was expected in Paris this week, but has not arrived. It makes it harder for Europe to authorise its industry to start the next phase of building on an orbiter to hunt for Methane in Mars' atmosphere. Industry has warned that time is running short to complete construction. (6/30)
Aldrin: Space Exploration Needs Kennedy-Style Public Goal (Source: Ann Arbor Business Review )
Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin called for a coordinated, international initiative to expand space exploration. Aldrin also expressed disappointment that President Obama ignored the 50th anniversary of the moment in 1961 when President Kennedy challenged the U.S. to put an explorer on the moon by the end of the decade.
“I’m going to be talking to the people running against” Obama in 2012, Aldrin said. In 1961, “many thought the challenge” of reaching the moon “would be impossible,” he said. “We didn’t have the knowhow, but we did have the leader with the vision, determination and confidence that we could get there."
He added: "By publicly stating our goal and putting a specific time period for achievement, a very specific accomplishment, President Kennedy gave us no backdoor. The challenge raised our spirits, reignited our can-do attitude, and brought us together as a nation.” (6/30)
Aerospace Group Spends $226K Lobbying in 1Q (Source: CNBC)
The Aerospace Industries Association of America Inc., a trade group for aviation and defense companies, spent $225,988 in the first quarter to lobby the federal government on space and defense spending. The association represents 147 companies, including U.S. defense contractors like Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co., and Rockwell Collins.
The group lobbied on aeronautics research and development planning, national aerospace policy, funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and U.S.-China space exploration. It also lobbied on space shuttle issues. The last shuttle flight is scheduled to land on July 20. (6/30)
Food Vendors Wanted for Launch of Atlantis (Source: CFNews13)
There's a way for you to make money during the final space shuttle launch of Atlantis. Vendors can sell food in parks, like Space View Park which gets packed with hundreds of people. Parks and Recreation leaders are looking for food vendors to set up in riverfront parks in North Brevard County. Vendors are required to have the proper licensing. There's a $50 fee, plus tax
They are taking applications until this Friday July 1. There are other requirements and vendors must have insurance. Vendors may obtain applications at the North Area Parks Operations Office, 475 North Williams Avenue, Titusville, or by email at jill.hill@brevardparks.com. Office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. (6/30)
Countries Worst Affected by Asteroid Strike (Source Daily Mail)
If you live in Britain, the U.S. or China, start preparing now. Scientists have drawn up a list of the countries which will be worst affected in the event of an asteroid strike. They have identified for the first time those which will suffer catastrophic loss of life or be so crippled it will be almost impossible for them to recover.
The top ten countries also include: Indonesia; India; Japan; Philippines; Italy; Brazil; and Nigeria. Even smaller countries like Sweden are in grave danger because of the damage to their infrastructure. The list has been compiled by researchers from the University of Southampton using software called called NEOimpactor. (6/30)
Congressman Mo Brooks: NASA in Financial Fight for its Life (Source: Huntsville Times)
U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-AL, said NASA's survival is at stake in the current Washington spending environment. "I don't know what's going to happen," Brooks said. "I know with this president, things are precarious and they may be getting worse...Hopefully, NASA can survive. But that's going to be up to the public to decide what they want .... That's going to be a battle."
Brooks said any of the Republican candidates so far seeking the White House would be better for NASA than President Obama. He challenged reports in The Times and elsewhere that Republican candidates are unwilling to support federal funding for NASA, based on their debate this month.
Based on positions taken elsewhere, Brooks said so far, "you've got Mitt Romney and you've got Pawlenty" as likely NASA supporters. But voters don't really know the candidates' NASA views yet, Brooks said, because the deficit issue is overshadowing all others. Editor's Note: NASA's budget has actually increased under President Obama. (6/30)
NASA: Debris Was 'Closest' Ever to Space Station (Source: CNN)
Tuesday's space debris incident at the International Space Station was the "closest anything has come to the space station," NASA said Wednesday. Final calculations showed the unknown object passed the space station 1,100 feet away and its source remains a mystery. It prompted the station's six astronauts to take shelter inside two Soyuz capsules. (6/30)
Private Space Industry Works to Replace the Shuttle (Source: MIT Technology Review)
NASA has released the first edition of its new bi-monthy newsletter that focuses on "happenings" in the agency's commercial spaceflight development program. The first newsletter is devoted to the progress made in the commercial crew development program, which recently awarded four companies money to develop spacecraft that can carry astronauts to space.
The progress made by these companies--SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and Sierra Nevada Corporation--is small. But with the space shuttle's final mission scheduled for July 8, the pressure is on for these companies to work quickly and efficiently to meet their goals. Click here to read the article. (6/3)
Defunding of NOAA Weather Satellites Means Goodbye To the 7-Day Forecast (Source: AGU)
TV viewers in America are used to seeing the 7- day forecast on the nightly weather report and the accuracy is actually as good for 7 days as it was for three back in 1980. If the polar orbiting satellite program is defunded (as now proposed by Congress) then forecast accuracy will likely go backwards.
That means a five-day forecast instead of seven and even those five will not be as good as they were. This isn’t just idle talk, the model data proves it. I wrote a post on this several months ago, and below is that post again with some updates. Apparently, one congressman told NOAA to turn on the Weather Channel to get the data (where do you think they get it from!). I cannot fathom how someone so scientifically illiterate gets to be elected to Congress. (6/29)
June 29, 2010
A Fusion Thruster for Space Travel (Source: IEEE)
Designers of satellites obsess about how little fuel their creations are able to carry into space. So the propulsion method they choose for maneuvers such as orbital transfers has to deliver a lot for a little. Now a NASA engineer has come up with a new way to fling satellites through space on mere grams of fuel, tens of times as efficiently as today’s best space probe thrusters.
The answer, he says, is fusion. You might be thinking, "Fusion? Really?" But it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds at first blush. Instead of using deuterium and tritium as the fuel stocks, the new motor extracts energy from boron fuel. Using boron, an "aneutronic" fuel, yields several advantages over conventional nuclear fusion. Aneutronic fusion, in which neutrons represent less than 1 percent of the energy-carrying particles that are the result of a reaction, is easier to manage.
To make use of neutrons, "you need an absorbing wall that converts the kinetic energy of the particles to thermal energy," he says. "In effect, all you’ve got is a fancy heat engine, with all its resultant losses and limitations." In Chapman’s aneutronic fusion reactor scheme, a commercially available benchtop laser starts the reaction. A beam with energy on the order of 2 x 1018 watts per square centimeter, pulse frequencies up to 75 megahertz, and wavelengths between 1 and 10 micrometers is aimed at a two-layer, 20-centimeter-diameter target. (6/28)
Shuttle Program May End, But Wallops Island Will See Plenty of Action (Source: WAMU)
If you've seen a rocket launch on TV, chances are it blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida. But the oldest and busiest launch site in America is actually in Virginia, near Chincoteague on the Eastern Shore. Three rockets launched from the commonwealth this month, and five more will go up in July.
NASA decided to build on Wallops Island in 1945. The location was ideal: on the water, near Langley Air Force Base, close to the Chincoteague Naval Air Station. "We've launched over 16,000 rockets since then," Koehler said. "Today we launch everything from suborbital rockets to targets for the military to a rocket to launch a satellite into orbit." About 1,700 people work there, and the center is a draw for tourists. (6/28)
Alaska Man Claims to Have Missing Apollo-era Moon Rock (Source: KHOU)
An Apollo-era moon rock gifted to the State of Alaska as a goodwill gesture by President Richard M. Nixon and thought to have been lost has been in the possession of a man who found it as a teenager in 1973, according to court documents obtained by KHOU 11 News.
In a lawsuit filed against the State of Alaska, Arthur C. Anderson claimed that he is the rightful owner of the moon rock, which the lawsuit said he found in a pile of debris after a fire at the Transportation Branch of the Alaska State Museum in Anchorage. (6/28)
LightSquared Gains NetTalk, Faces More Critics (Source: PC World)
Mobile startup LightSquared has gained another wholesale customer on Tuesday even as more critics joined a group that opposes LightSquared's planned LTE network on the grounds that it will interfere with GPS. NetTalk, which sells an inexpensive alternative to landline phone service using VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), will resell access to LightSquared's LTE (Long-Term Evolution) mobile network under its own branded service. (6/29)
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns to Florida (Source: SpaceX)
SpaceX's recently flown Dragon Capsule will be delivered to the Air Force Space and Missile History Center at the South Gate entrance to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on July 1 for a limited-time display. The Air Force Space and Missile History Center will be open for media tours as well. The 3,200 sq. ft. facility houses historic hardware and visual displays that highlight all active and deactivated CCAFS launch complexes from the past 50+ years of flight. (6/29)
China and UK Strike Space Deal (Source: BBC)
Chinese and UK companies have agreed a deal that will result in three high-resolution Earth observation spacecraft being built to map China's extraordinary growth from orbit. The deal was penned between Guildford satellite imagery provider DMCii and Beijing-based company 21AT. It means DMCii can now roll out its new constellation of spacecraft that will picture details on the surface of the planet less than a meter wide. They should be ready to launch in 2014. (6/29)
ISS Orbit to be Corrected for Docking with Atlantis (Source: Itar-Tass)
The Russian Mission Control Center will correct on Wednesday the orbit of the International Space Station to create favorable conditions for the docking with NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle is expected to blast off from Canaveral on July 8. Eight docking and orientation engines of Progress M-11M cargo craft will be used to raise the orbit. (6/29)
'Commercial Space Trips to be Affordable in 20 Years' (Source: PTI)
Noted space entrepreneur Susmita Mohanty, founder of the country's first private space start-up Earth2Orbit, said commercial space transportation would be an affordable reality in the next two decades. He called for a commercial approach to the space missions saying, "our space transportation technologies are still primitive, flying dirty and polluting rockets to space. One of the reasons for this is that across the globe it is being funded by tax-payers money. It is time we come out of the government cocoon and start working on our own." (6/29)
Space Debris a Growing Problem (Source: AFP)
A scare triggered by orbital debris that on Tuesday came within a couple of hundred meters of the International Space Station sheds light on an acutely worsening problem. Millions of chunks of metal, plastic and glass are whirling round Earth, the garbage left from 4,600 launches in 54 years of space exploration.
The collision risk is low, but the junk travels at such high speed that even a tiny shard can cripple a satellite costing tens of millions of dollars. Around 16,000 objects bigger than 10 centimeters (four inches) across are tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network. There are around 500,000 pieces between one and 10 cms (half and four inches), while the total of particles smaller than one centimeter (half an inch) "probably exceeds tens of millions," NASA says. (6/29)
Embry-Riddle Rocket Engineers Win International Competition for Second Year (Source: ERAU)
A student team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University won first place at the sixth annual Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition with the launch of their rocket Pathfinder III, which flew to 10,310 feet. The event was hosted by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association in Utah, and drew teams from nine universities in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. Students in Embry-Riddle’s Future Space Explorers and Developers Society engineered Pathfinder III, and students in the Engineering Design Club created the rocket’s electronic inertial monitoring system, global positioning system, and telemetry downlink. Last year, in their rookie entry, the same Embry-Riddle team won the competition with their Pathfinder II heavy rocket. (6/29)
Designers of satellites obsess about how little fuel their creations are able to carry into space. So the propulsion method they choose for maneuvers such as orbital transfers has to deliver a lot for a little. Now a NASA engineer has come up with a new way to fling satellites through space on mere grams of fuel, tens of times as efficiently as today’s best space probe thrusters.
The answer, he says, is fusion. You might be thinking, "Fusion? Really?" But it’s not as far-fetched as it sounds at first blush. Instead of using deuterium and tritium as the fuel stocks, the new motor extracts energy from boron fuel. Using boron, an "aneutronic" fuel, yields several advantages over conventional nuclear fusion. Aneutronic fusion, in which neutrons represent less than 1 percent of the energy-carrying particles that are the result of a reaction, is easier to manage.
To make use of neutrons, "you need an absorbing wall that converts the kinetic energy of the particles to thermal energy," he says. "In effect, all you’ve got is a fancy heat engine, with all its resultant losses and limitations." In Chapman’s aneutronic fusion reactor scheme, a commercially available benchtop laser starts the reaction. A beam with energy on the order of 2 x 1018 watts per square centimeter, pulse frequencies up to 75 megahertz, and wavelengths between 1 and 10 micrometers is aimed at a two-layer, 20-centimeter-diameter target. (6/28)
Shuttle Program May End, But Wallops Island Will See Plenty of Action (Source: WAMU)
If you've seen a rocket launch on TV, chances are it blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida. But the oldest and busiest launch site in America is actually in Virginia, near Chincoteague on the Eastern Shore. Three rockets launched from the commonwealth this month, and five more will go up in July.
NASA decided to build on Wallops Island in 1945. The location was ideal: on the water, near Langley Air Force Base, close to the Chincoteague Naval Air Station. "We've launched over 16,000 rockets since then," Koehler said. "Today we launch everything from suborbital rockets to targets for the military to a rocket to launch a satellite into orbit." About 1,700 people work there, and the center is a draw for tourists. (6/28)
Alaska Man Claims to Have Missing Apollo-era Moon Rock (Source: KHOU)
An Apollo-era moon rock gifted to the State of Alaska as a goodwill gesture by President Richard M. Nixon and thought to have been lost has been in the possession of a man who found it as a teenager in 1973, according to court documents obtained by KHOU 11 News.
In a lawsuit filed against the State of Alaska, Arthur C. Anderson claimed that he is the rightful owner of the moon rock, which the lawsuit said he found in a pile of debris after a fire at the Transportation Branch of the Alaska State Museum in Anchorage. (6/28)
LightSquared Gains NetTalk, Faces More Critics (Source: PC World)
Mobile startup LightSquared has gained another wholesale customer on Tuesday even as more critics joined a group that opposes LightSquared's planned LTE network on the grounds that it will interfere with GPS. NetTalk, which sells an inexpensive alternative to landline phone service using VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), will resell access to LightSquared's LTE (Long-Term Evolution) mobile network under its own branded service. (6/29)
SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns to Florida (Source: SpaceX)
SpaceX's recently flown Dragon Capsule will be delivered to the Air Force Space and Missile History Center at the South Gate entrance to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on July 1 for a limited-time display. The Air Force Space and Missile History Center will be open for media tours as well. The 3,200 sq. ft. facility houses historic hardware and visual displays that highlight all active and deactivated CCAFS launch complexes from the past 50+ years of flight. (6/29)
China and UK Strike Space Deal (Source: BBC)
Chinese and UK companies have agreed a deal that will result in three high-resolution Earth observation spacecraft being built to map China's extraordinary growth from orbit. The deal was penned between Guildford satellite imagery provider DMCii and Beijing-based company 21AT. It means DMCii can now roll out its new constellation of spacecraft that will picture details on the surface of the planet less than a meter wide. They should be ready to launch in 2014. (6/29)
ISS Orbit to be Corrected for Docking with Atlantis (Source: Itar-Tass)
The Russian Mission Control Center will correct on Wednesday the orbit of the International Space Station to create favorable conditions for the docking with NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis. The shuttle is expected to blast off from Canaveral on July 8. Eight docking and orientation engines of Progress M-11M cargo craft will be used to raise the orbit. (6/29)
'Commercial Space Trips to be Affordable in 20 Years' (Source: PTI)
Noted space entrepreneur Susmita Mohanty, founder of the country's first private space start-up Earth2Orbit, said commercial space transportation would be an affordable reality in the next two decades. He called for a commercial approach to the space missions saying, "our space transportation technologies are still primitive, flying dirty and polluting rockets to space. One of the reasons for this is that across the globe it is being funded by tax-payers money. It is time we come out of the government cocoon and start working on our own." (6/29)
Space Debris a Growing Problem (Source: AFP)
A scare triggered by orbital debris that on Tuesday came within a couple of hundred meters of the International Space Station sheds light on an acutely worsening problem. Millions of chunks of metal, plastic and glass are whirling round Earth, the garbage left from 4,600 launches in 54 years of space exploration.
The collision risk is low, but the junk travels at such high speed that even a tiny shard can cripple a satellite costing tens of millions of dollars. Around 16,000 objects bigger than 10 centimeters (four inches) across are tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network. There are around 500,000 pieces between one and 10 cms (half and four inches), while the total of particles smaller than one centimeter (half an inch) "probably exceeds tens of millions," NASA says. (6/29)
Embry-Riddle Rocket Engineers Win International Competition for Second Year (Source: ERAU)
A student team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University won first place at the sixth annual Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition with the launch of their rocket Pathfinder III, which flew to 10,310 feet. The event was hosted by the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association in Utah, and drew teams from nine universities in the U.S., Canada, and Brazil. Students in Embry-Riddle’s Future Space Explorers and Developers Society engineered Pathfinder III, and students in the Engineering Design Club created the rocket’s electronic inertial monitoring system, global positioning system, and telemetry downlink. Last year, in their rookie entry, the same Embry-Riddle team won the competition with their Pathfinder II heavy rocket. (6/29)
June 28, 2011
Sun and Planets Formed from Different Ingredients (Source: Astronomy Now)
Samples recovered from NASA's ill-fated Genesis mission suggest that the Solar System's inner planets may have formed from different solar nebula materials than those that created the Sun. Genesis flew to the Sun in 2001, collecting fragile solar wind particles for over two years before returning them to Earth in 2004, with the goal of learning about the building blocks that went into planet construction 4.6 billion years ago.
Sadly, the parachute descent system failed on the sample return capsule and the mission crash landed in a desert in Utah, destroying nearly all of its precious cargo. But the mission was far from a failure; samples cocooned inside one instrument – the Solar Wind Concentrator, built by a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory – were recoverable, providing the first direct oxygen and nitrogen isotopic measurements of the Sun, and thus the first measurements of the "fossils" of the original solar nebula.
Oxygen and nitrogen are two of the most abundant elements in the Solar System and have already been measured in meteorite samples from the Moon and Mars that have fallen to Earth, in the lunar soil by Apollo astronauts and in Jupiter’s atmosphere by the Galileo spacecraft. They all show variations in composition to the Earth, begging the question, where did Earth’s oxygen and nitrogen come from? This is where the Genesis results are shedding some light. (6/28)
How the Space Shuttle Was Born (Source: Space.com)
The Space Shuttle is actually pushing 40, since President Nixon officially announced its existence in January 1972. And the shuttle's roots go much deeper than that, stretching all the way back to a 1930s concept vehicle the Nazis hoped could drop bombs on New York City. Click here to read the article. (6/28)
Orbital Minotaur I Launch with ORS-1 Delayed 24 Hours (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Orbital Sciences Corp. was set to launch a spacecraft for the United States’ Operationally Responsive Space Office on Tuesday evening, prior to a 24 hour scrub being called due to unacceptable weather. The ORS-1 satellite is waiting to be carried into orbit by the tenth flight of a Minotaur I rocket, with lift off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. (6/28)
100 Years Ago, a Chunk of Mars Hit Egypt (and a Dog) (Source: Discovery)
Exactly a century ago, on June 28, 1911, an explosion shook the Nakhla region of Alexandria in Egypt at 9 a.m. Soon after, around 40 chunks of meteorite debris from the high altitude blast rained down. 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of the bolide were recovered by witnesses of this cosmic event.
The Smithsonian received two samples of the Nakhla meteorite the following August and then acquired a larger 480 gram (one pound) piece in 1962. By the 1970's, the Smithsonian had collected 650 grams (1.4 pounds) of the meteorite. Click here. (6/28)
More Zero-Gravity Flights Available in 2012 (Source: Discovery)
What child has not dreamed of breaking free from gravity's chains and floating, weightless, above Earth's surface? That fantasy, long-since dismissed in the adult mind as a violation of Nature, came true last week for a small group of scientists, French parliamentarians and journalists, flying aboard an Airbus A300, owned by French aeronautics firm Novespace and run by France's National Center for Space Studies (CNES).
Novespace managing director and ex-astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy said he plans to offer commercial flights. Final approval from France's civil aviation authority is pending, and the price tag -- provisionally set at 4,000 euros (U.S. $5,700 dollars) -- has yet to be finalized. But Clervoy envisions half-a-dozen sorties a year with 40 passengers each starting in 2012. (6/28)
Raytheon Starts to Build Missile Facility in Alabama (Source: Huntsville Times)
Raytheon broke ground on a new missile facility in Huntsville, Ala., on Monday. The $70 million facility will be key to the future missile defense plans of the U.S. and Europe. Raytheon will assemble and test components of its missiles at the plant before they are sent to customers such as the U.S. Navy or Missile Defense Agency, said Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon's Missile Systems business. (6/28)
Congressional Committee Blocks FCC Approval of LightSquared (Source: GPS World)
The House Appropriations Committee approved the FY-12 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. One amendment to the bill prohibits funding for the FCC to remove conditions on or permit certain commercial broadband operations until the FCC has resolved concerns of harmful interference by these operations on GPS devices.
The prohibition means that the FCC is effectively barred from any further consideration of LightSquared’s plan, since even meeting to discuss the plan spends federal funds through employee salaries. Until LightSquared comes up with a plan that completely protects existing GPS navigation devices from interference, LightSquared cannot operate its satellite-based broadband service. (6/28)
Improving Slumber on the Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
It is difficult to sleep in a strange place. Whether on Earth or in orbit, sleep is essential to human well-being. In space, getting enough rest is also vital for the safe completion of critical operations, as the crew may be one alarm bell away from a life-and-death situation.
To develop measures to improve the quality and duration of sleep in space, scientists are conducting the Sleep - Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure During Spaceflight - Long investigation or Sleep-Long. This study examines the sleep - wake patterns of the crew members while they are aboard the space station.
The Sleep - Long investigation uses an objective approach to monitoring sleep by having the crew wear an Actiwatch. This device, which resembles a wristwatch, monitors sleep/wake activity using a miniature accelerometer that records crew movement. The Actiwatch also measures the ambient light conditions during the study. (6/28)
Space Debris Narrowly Misses Space Station (Source: PhysOrg)
An unidentified piece of debris narrowly missed the International Space Station on Tuesday in a rare incident that forced the six-member crew to scramble to their rescue craft. The piece of space junk missed the fragile orbiter by just 250 meters (820 feet).
A spokesman at Russian mission control outside Moscow said the incident occurred at around 4:30 pm (1230 GMT) and that the crew was now "working according to their normal schedule," RIA Novosti reported. Another Russian space official said by telephone that such incidents had occurred in the past and did not represent an emergency. (6/28)
Asteroid Gives Astronomers a Show (Source: Space.com)
An asteroid the size of a tour bus zipped by Earth on June 27 in a flyby so close that the space rock was nearer to the planet than some satellites. The space rock reached its closest point to Earth just after 1 p.m. EDT, when it crept within 7,500 miles (12,000 km) of Earth (above the coast of Antarctica) before whipping away again like a slingshot. (6/28)
Giffords Makes First Public Appearance (Source: Daily Beast)
Nearly seven months after the shooting that nearly killed her, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made her first public appearance on Monday at an event in Houston honoring her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. She entered in a wheelchair and waved to the audience, which applauded. She held Kelly’s hand throughout the ceremony and appeared to chat with the people around her. And she rose from her wheelchair to hug and kiss her husband when he received the Spaceflight Medal. She then left before the end of the event, as they were showing home movies of the crew. (6/28)
NASA Gives Senate Panel Documents on Heavy-Lift Rocket (Source: Florida Today)
The deadline Monday passed without a threatened Senate subpoena being issued for NASA documents about development of its next heavy-lift rocket. "The agency is working to respond to the Senate commerce committee request and compiling the records requested," NASA spokesman J.D. Harrington said Monday. (6/28)
Samples recovered from NASA's ill-fated Genesis mission suggest that the Solar System's inner planets may have formed from different solar nebula materials than those that created the Sun. Genesis flew to the Sun in 2001, collecting fragile solar wind particles for over two years before returning them to Earth in 2004, with the goal of learning about the building blocks that went into planet construction 4.6 billion years ago.
Sadly, the parachute descent system failed on the sample return capsule and the mission crash landed in a desert in Utah, destroying nearly all of its precious cargo. But the mission was far from a failure; samples cocooned inside one instrument – the Solar Wind Concentrator, built by a team at Los Alamos National Laboratory – were recoverable, providing the first direct oxygen and nitrogen isotopic measurements of the Sun, and thus the first measurements of the "fossils" of the original solar nebula.
Oxygen and nitrogen are two of the most abundant elements in the Solar System and have already been measured in meteorite samples from the Moon and Mars that have fallen to Earth, in the lunar soil by Apollo astronauts and in Jupiter’s atmosphere by the Galileo spacecraft. They all show variations in composition to the Earth, begging the question, where did Earth’s oxygen and nitrogen come from? This is where the Genesis results are shedding some light. (6/28)
How the Space Shuttle Was Born (Source: Space.com)
The Space Shuttle is actually pushing 40, since President Nixon officially announced its existence in January 1972. And the shuttle's roots go much deeper than that, stretching all the way back to a 1930s concept vehicle the Nazis hoped could drop bombs on New York City. Click here to read the article. (6/28)
Orbital Minotaur I Launch with ORS-1 Delayed 24 Hours (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Orbital Sciences Corp. was set to launch a spacecraft for the United States’ Operationally Responsive Space Office on Tuesday evening, prior to a 24 hour scrub being called due to unacceptable weather. The ORS-1 satellite is waiting to be carried into orbit by the tenth flight of a Minotaur I rocket, with lift off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island. (6/28)
100 Years Ago, a Chunk of Mars Hit Egypt (and a Dog) (Source: Discovery)
Exactly a century ago, on June 28, 1911, an explosion shook the Nakhla region of Alexandria in Egypt at 9 a.m. Soon after, around 40 chunks of meteorite debris from the high altitude blast rained down. 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of the bolide were recovered by witnesses of this cosmic event.
The Smithsonian received two samples of the Nakhla meteorite the following August and then acquired a larger 480 gram (one pound) piece in 1962. By the 1970's, the Smithsonian had collected 650 grams (1.4 pounds) of the meteorite. Click here. (6/28)
More Zero-Gravity Flights Available in 2012 (Source: Discovery)
What child has not dreamed of breaking free from gravity's chains and floating, weightless, above Earth's surface? That fantasy, long-since dismissed in the adult mind as a violation of Nature, came true last week for a small group of scientists, French parliamentarians and journalists, flying aboard an Airbus A300, owned by French aeronautics firm Novespace and run by France's National Center for Space Studies (CNES).
Novespace managing director and ex-astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy said he plans to offer commercial flights. Final approval from France's civil aviation authority is pending, and the price tag -- provisionally set at 4,000 euros (U.S. $5,700 dollars) -- has yet to be finalized. But Clervoy envisions half-a-dozen sorties a year with 40 passengers each starting in 2012. (6/28)
Raytheon Starts to Build Missile Facility in Alabama (Source: Huntsville Times)
Raytheon broke ground on a new missile facility in Huntsville, Ala., on Monday. The $70 million facility will be key to the future missile defense plans of the U.S. and Europe. Raytheon will assemble and test components of its missiles at the plant before they are sent to customers such as the U.S. Navy or Missile Defense Agency, said Taylor Lawrence, president of Raytheon's Missile Systems business. (6/28)
Congressional Committee Blocks FCC Approval of LightSquared (Source: GPS World)
The House Appropriations Committee approved the FY-12 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill. One amendment to the bill prohibits funding for the FCC to remove conditions on or permit certain commercial broadband operations until the FCC has resolved concerns of harmful interference by these operations on GPS devices.
The prohibition means that the FCC is effectively barred from any further consideration of LightSquared’s plan, since even meeting to discuss the plan spends federal funds through employee salaries. Until LightSquared comes up with a plan that completely protects existing GPS navigation devices from interference, LightSquared cannot operate its satellite-based broadband service. (6/28)
Improving Slumber on the Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
It is difficult to sleep in a strange place. Whether on Earth or in orbit, sleep is essential to human well-being. In space, getting enough rest is also vital for the safe completion of critical operations, as the crew may be one alarm bell away from a life-and-death situation.
To develop measures to improve the quality and duration of sleep in space, scientists are conducting the Sleep - Wake Actigraphy and Light Exposure During Spaceflight - Long investigation or Sleep-Long. This study examines the sleep - wake patterns of the crew members while they are aboard the space station.
The Sleep - Long investigation uses an objective approach to monitoring sleep by having the crew wear an Actiwatch. This device, which resembles a wristwatch, monitors sleep/wake activity using a miniature accelerometer that records crew movement. The Actiwatch also measures the ambient light conditions during the study. (6/28)
Space Debris Narrowly Misses Space Station (Source: PhysOrg)
An unidentified piece of debris narrowly missed the International Space Station on Tuesday in a rare incident that forced the six-member crew to scramble to their rescue craft. The piece of space junk missed the fragile orbiter by just 250 meters (820 feet).
A spokesman at Russian mission control outside Moscow said the incident occurred at around 4:30 pm (1230 GMT) and that the crew was now "working according to their normal schedule," RIA Novosti reported. Another Russian space official said by telephone that such incidents had occurred in the past and did not represent an emergency. (6/28)
Asteroid Gives Astronomers a Show (Source: Space.com)
An asteroid the size of a tour bus zipped by Earth on June 27 in a flyby so close that the space rock was nearer to the planet than some satellites. The space rock reached its closest point to Earth just after 1 p.m. EDT, when it crept within 7,500 miles (12,000 km) of Earth (above the coast of Antarctica) before whipping away again like a slingshot. (6/28)
Giffords Makes First Public Appearance (Source: Daily Beast)
Nearly seven months after the shooting that nearly killed her, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made her first public appearance on Monday at an event in Houston honoring her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. She entered in a wheelchair and waved to the audience, which applauded. She held Kelly’s hand throughout the ceremony and appeared to chat with the people around her. And she rose from her wheelchair to hug and kiss her husband when he received the Spaceflight Medal. She then left before the end of the event, as they were showing home movies of the crew. (6/28)
NASA Gives Senate Panel Documents on Heavy-Lift Rocket (Source: Florida Today)
The deadline Monday passed without a threatened Senate subpoena being issued for NASA documents about development of its next heavy-lift rocket. "The agency is working to respond to the Senate commerce committee request and compiling the records requested," NASA spokesman J.D. Harrington said Monday. (6/28)
June 27, 2011
Volunteer Star Gazers Needed for NASA Mission (Source: UCF)
Calling all amateur star gazers: Scientists need your help. A team from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville has developed the website IceHunters, which challenges the public to discover potential destinations for a NASA mission at the very edge of the solar system set to happen around 2015.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Yanga Fernandez, a University of Central Florida physics assistant professor and comet expert. “Actually that's kind of how I started. When I was 10, I used to search the sky for interesting objects with my dad. And in high school I worked hard to find Halley's Comet, which wasn't easy in suburban Florida. I learned a lot of astronomy along the way." (6/27)
Next GPS Satellite Moves to Cape Canaveral Launch Pad (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
A Global Positioning System satellite has been loaded aboard its ride to space, arriving Monday at Cape Canaveral's Complex 37 for mounting atop the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket. Liftoff of the GPS 2F-2 spacecraft is scheduled for July 14 during a 19-minute window extending from 2:49 to 3:08 a.m. EDT. (6/27)
The National Space Policy, One Year Later (Source: Space Politics)
One year ago this week the White House released its new national space policy. Jeff Foust reports on the progress government agencies have made in implementing the policy and the policy's long-term relevance. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1873/1 to view the article. (6/27)
Gazing Back Through the Crystal Ball (Source: Space Politics)
More than 30 years ago one writer penned a major critique of the shuttle program before even the first shuttle launch. Dwayne Day examines what Gregg Easterbrook got right and wrong in his assessment. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1872/1 to view the article. (6/27)
Commercial Space, What's Good for Florida, and 2012 (Source: Space Politics)
The end of the shuttle program has caused plenty of angst in Florida, where people fear the loss of jobs that will result after the shuttle is retired. Alan Stern notes that commercial space efforts can help the local economy rebound, provided there's sufficient political support for them. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1871/1 to view the article. (6/27)
Iran’s Space Program Plans to Send Monkey in Capsule (Source: Washington Post)
Iran says it plans to send a monkey into space next month as the next step in a space program that Western leaders worry could also bring major advances in Iran’s missile arsenal. The state-run news agency IRNA quotes the head of Iran’s space agency as saying Monday that five monkeys are undergoing tests and one will be selected for the flight on a Kavoshgar-5 — or Explorer-5 — rocket. (6/27)
Medvedev Tells Ivanov to Look Into Environmental Satellite Program (Source: Itar-Tass)
President Dmitry Medvedev instructed First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov to look into how environmental satellite programs are implemented in Russia. Ivanov said, “The federal space programme does not include spacecraft for Arctic exploration.” Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev had complained about the absence of such satellites.
He criticized the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) for the fact that of eight weather satellites that were supposed to be already operating only one has been launched. “I will look into it, but I fully support the proposal that the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, not Roscosmos, be the customer of these works,” Ivanov said. (6/27)
Russian Astronomers Hope to Find Aliens Within Two Decades (Source: Interfax)
Russian astronomers hope to find extraterrestrial civilizations in 20 years, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute Andrei Finkelstein said. "The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms. There are fundamental laws, which apply to the entire universe. There is life on other planets and we will find it in 20 years," he said.
Finkelstein believes that aliens will look like earthlings: they will have two legs, two arms and a head. "Possibly, they will have a different color skin, but the same happens here. While we have been searching for extraterrestrial civilians, we have been waiting for messages from space, not the other way," he said. About 1,000 exoplanets, i.e. planets circling around stars like the Sun, have been found, and 10% of them resemble the Earth, researchers said. There will be life on such planets if there is water. (6/27)
Soyuz Rocket Orbits Military Satellite (Source: Itar-Tass)
A Soyuz-U carrier rocket that blasted off from the Plesetsk spaceport on Monday, June 27, has orbited a military satellite. "The launch was carried out under the general supervision of Space Troops Commander, Lieutenant-General Oleg Ostapenko who arrived at the spaceport the day before to oversee the work,” an official said. (6/27)
Medvedev Supports Using GLONASS for Fighting Illegal Waste Dumping (Source: Itar-Tass)
President Dmitry Medvedev supported the idea of installing GLONASS receivers on all garbage trucks in order to prevent illegal waste dumping. He instructed the government “to think” how to encourage the owners of garbage trucks and regions to install space tracking devices.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who proposed the idea, quoted materials prepared for the commission meeting as saying that “an extremely big income of the waste business and a high level of corruption in it hamper the resolution of the waste problem”. “Absolutely so. I confirm this,” Ivanov said. (6/27)
Taming the Heavens: The New Space Diplomacy (Source: ISN)
The US and EU recently released documents regarding space security. Should they come to an accord or should the US take the lead? In February, the government of the United States issued its first-ever National Security Space Strategy (NSSS), a document jointly produced by the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The timing of the release was interesting, coming three months after the Council of the European Union released a draft Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities.
Skeptics in Washington suspected that the NSSS was a negotiating document released in response to the EU effort, and designed to lead to an accord between the US and the EU on space security. But Republicans in Congress have expressed concerns about some aspects of the EU Code, and appear to have derailed any efforts to reach an agreement. As recently as 4 April, Frank Rose, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, told a UN conference that the US government "hopes to make a decision in the near term as to whether the United States can sign on to this Code, including what, if any, modifications would be necessary." Click here. (6/27)
The Manifest Price of Destiny (Source: Financial Times)
Next week the US space shuttle is scheduled to take off for the 135th and last time. Atlantis will carry a crew of four to the International Space Station and lower the curtain on a 30-year era of manned space flight. For the next few years NASA will rely on Russian rockets to take astronauts into space – an uneasy dependency for many Americans steeped in the old rivalries of the cold war space race.
Logically, this pause would be an opportunity for the US to rethink the whole purpose of sending people into space – an environment so profoundly hostile to the human body that immense sums have to be spent making travel beyond Earth acceptably safe. But too many Americans still feel a compulsion to spend billions of their tax dollars on manned space flight for a complete re-evaluation to be politically feasible. (6/27)
Hotels Filling Up Fast for Atlantis Launch (Source: CFNews13)
People waiting to book a hotel for the final shuttle launch July 8 may soon find that there is no more room at the inn, so to speak. The Executive Director of the Space Coast office of Tourism, Rob Varley, said they are anticipating the arrival of one million people in town for the final launch.
The phones been ringing off the hook at the Ramada Inn in Titusville. Jason Russell is the Operations Manager at the hotel. He said they receive, “anywhere from 50 to 150 calls a day just at our location." Many of the hotels in Titusville and Cocoa Beach said they have been booked for several weeks. Prices are also higher than ever, some rooms costing over $300 for the days before and after the launch. Normally they would cost about $60 to $100. (6/27)
US Space Entrepreneur Accused of Aiding Iran (Source: AP)
Nader Modanlo moved from Iran to the U.S. during his teenage years, where he earned degrees in aerospace engineering, became a U.S. citizen and co-founded a pioneering satellite telecommunications company, Final Analysis Inc., that at one point was worth up to $500 million. He seemed on the verge of the kind of success that immigrants dream of achieving.
Today, those dreams are burning up like a spacecraft in steep re-entry. Modanlo's company is bankrupt, his U.S. and Iranian passports have been confiscated and a federal judge has ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet while he sleeps. A federal grand jury indicted him last year on charges he secretly brokered the launch from Russia of the first Iranian-owned satellite in 2005, in violation of the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 65 years in prison and ordered to pay $10 million. Five Iranian nationals were also indicted, but none are in custody. Click here to read the article. (6/27)
Rocket Launch Preparations to be Automated at Vostochny Spaceport (Source: Itar-Tass)
Operations preparing a rocket for takeoff will be automated at Russia’s new Vostochny spaceport. “The testing of every system, [except payload and fueling] will be fully automated,” an official said. "[Starting with delivery to the launch pad; the rocket will undergo comprehensive tests and a spare day will be given for preparations if necessary. So, the entire process will take no more than two or three days.”
As for the development of a medium rocket for Vostochny, he did not rule out certain changes in technical specifications. “Initial specifications said that the rocket must carry a payload of no less than 23 tons. Yet a lesser weight was suggested at the latest meeting of the Federal Space Agency,” he said. (6/27)
NASA Set to Launch DOD Rocket from Virginia Spaceport (Source: AP)
NASA is preparing to launch a Department of Defense satellite from the Wallops Flight Facility at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. The Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket is scheduled for launch Tuesday. The Minotaur 1 rocket is about 70 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It's set for launch between 8:28 p.m. and 11:28 p.m. The backup launch days are Wednesday through July 10. This will be the fourth Minotaur 1 rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility and the spaceport since 2006. (6/27)
Calling all amateur star gazers: Scientists need your help. A team from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville has developed the website IceHunters, which challenges the public to discover potential destinations for a NASA mission at the very edge of the solar system set to happen around 2015.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Yanga Fernandez, a University of Central Florida physics assistant professor and comet expert. “Actually that's kind of how I started. When I was 10, I used to search the sky for interesting objects with my dad. And in high school I worked hard to find Halley's Comet, which wasn't easy in suburban Florida. I learned a lot of astronomy along the way." (6/27)
Next GPS Satellite Moves to Cape Canaveral Launch Pad (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
A Global Positioning System satellite has been loaded aboard its ride to space, arriving Monday at Cape Canaveral's Complex 37 for mounting atop the United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket. Liftoff of the GPS 2F-2 spacecraft is scheduled for July 14 during a 19-minute window extending from 2:49 to 3:08 a.m. EDT. (6/27)
The National Space Policy, One Year Later (Source: Space Politics)
One year ago this week the White House released its new national space policy. Jeff Foust reports on the progress government agencies have made in implementing the policy and the policy's long-term relevance. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1873/1 to view the article. (6/27)
Gazing Back Through the Crystal Ball (Source: Space Politics)
More than 30 years ago one writer penned a major critique of the shuttle program before even the first shuttle launch. Dwayne Day examines what Gregg Easterbrook got right and wrong in his assessment. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1872/1 to view the article. (6/27)
Commercial Space, What's Good for Florida, and 2012 (Source: Space Politics)
The end of the shuttle program has caused plenty of angst in Florida, where people fear the loss of jobs that will result after the shuttle is retired. Alan Stern notes that commercial space efforts can help the local economy rebound, provided there's sufficient political support for them. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1871/1 to view the article. (6/27)
Iran’s Space Program Plans to Send Monkey in Capsule (Source: Washington Post)
Iran says it plans to send a monkey into space next month as the next step in a space program that Western leaders worry could also bring major advances in Iran’s missile arsenal. The state-run news agency IRNA quotes the head of Iran’s space agency as saying Monday that five monkeys are undergoing tests and one will be selected for the flight on a Kavoshgar-5 — or Explorer-5 — rocket. (6/27)
Medvedev Tells Ivanov to Look Into Environmental Satellite Program (Source: Itar-Tass)
President Dmitry Medvedev instructed First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov to look into how environmental satellite programs are implemented in Russia. Ivanov said, “The federal space programme does not include spacecraft for Arctic exploration.” Minister of Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev had complained about the absence of such satellites.
He criticized the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) for the fact that of eight weather satellites that were supposed to be already operating only one has been launched. “I will look into it, but I fully support the proposal that the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, not Roscosmos, be the customer of these works,” Ivanov said. (6/27)
Russian Astronomers Hope to Find Aliens Within Two Decades (Source: Interfax)
Russian astronomers hope to find extraterrestrial civilizations in 20 years, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Applied Astronomy Institute Andrei Finkelstein said. "The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms. There are fundamental laws, which apply to the entire universe. There is life on other planets and we will find it in 20 years," he said.
Finkelstein believes that aliens will look like earthlings: they will have two legs, two arms and a head. "Possibly, they will have a different color skin, but the same happens here. While we have been searching for extraterrestrial civilians, we have been waiting for messages from space, not the other way," he said. About 1,000 exoplanets, i.e. planets circling around stars like the Sun, have been found, and 10% of them resemble the Earth, researchers said. There will be life on such planets if there is water. (6/27)
Soyuz Rocket Orbits Military Satellite (Source: Itar-Tass)
A Soyuz-U carrier rocket that blasted off from the Plesetsk spaceport on Monday, June 27, has orbited a military satellite. "The launch was carried out under the general supervision of Space Troops Commander, Lieutenant-General Oleg Ostapenko who arrived at the spaceport the day before to oversee the work,” an official said. (6/27)
Medvedev Supports Using GLONASS for Fighting Illegal Waste Dumping (Source: Itar-Tass)
President Dmitry Medvedev supported the idea of installing GLONASS receivers on all garbage trucks in order to prevent illegal waste dumping. He instructed the government “to think” how to encourage the owners of garbage trucks and regions to install space tracking devices.
First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who proposed the idea, quoted materials prepared for the commission meeting as saying that “an extremely big income of the waste business and a high level of corruption in it hamper the resolution of the waste problem”. “Absolutely so. I confirm this,” Ivanov said. (6/27)
Taming the Heavens: The New Space Diplomacy (Source: ISN)
The US and EU recently released documents regarding space security. Should they come to an accord or should the US take the lead? In February, the government of the United States issued its first-ever National Security Space Strategy (NSSS), a document jointly produced by the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The timing of the release was interesting, coming three months after the Council of the European Union released a draft Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities.
Skeptics in Washington suspected that the NSSS was a negotiating document released in response to the EU effort, and designed to lead to an accord between the US and the EU on space security. But Republicans in Congress have expressed concerns about some aspects of the EU Code, and appear to have derailed any efforts to reach an agreement. As recently as 4 April, Frank Rose, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, told a UN conference that the US government "hopes to make a decision in the near term as to whether the United States can sign on to this Code, including what, if any, modifications would be necessary." Click here. (6/27)
The Manifest Price of Destiny (Source: Financial Times)
Next week the US space shuttle is scheduled to take off for the 135th and last time. Atlantis will carry a crew of four to the International Space Station and lower the curtain on a 30-year era of manned space flight. For the next few years NASA will rely on Russian rockets to take astronauts into space – an uneasy dependency for many Americans steeped in the old rivalries of the cold war space race.
Logically, this pause would be an opportunity for the US to rethink the whole purpose of sending people into space – an environment so profoundly hostile to the human body that immense sums have to be spent making travel beyond Earth acceptably safe. But too many Americans still feel a compulsion to spend billions of their tax dollars on manned space flight for a complete re-evaluation to be politically feasible. (6/27)
Hotels Filling Up Fast for Atlantis Launch (Source: CFNews13)
People waiting to book a hotel for the final shuttle launch July 8 may soon find that there is no more room at the inn, so to speak. The Executive Director of the Space Coast office of Tourism, Rob Varley, said they are anticipating the arrival of one million people in town for the final launch.
The phones been ringing off the hook at the Ramada Inn in Titusville. Jason Russell is the Operations Manager at the hotel. He said they receive, “anywhere from 50 to 150 calls a day just at our location." Many of the hotels in Titusville and Cocoa Beach said they have been booked for several weeks. Prices are also higher than ever, some rooms costing over $300 for the days before and after the launch. Normally they would cost about $60 to $100. (6/27)
US Space Entrepreneur Accused of Aiding Iran (Source: AP)
Nader Modanlo moved from Iran to the U.S. during his teenage years, where he earned degrees in aerospace engineering, became a U.S. citizen and co-founded a pioneering satellite telecommunications company, Final Analysis Inc., that at one point was worth up to $500 million. He seemed on the verge of the kind of success that immigrants dream of achieving.
Today, those dreams are burning up like a spacecraft in steep re-entry. Modanlo's company is bankrupt, his U.S. and Iranian passports have been confiscated and a federal judge has ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet while he sleeps. A federal grand jury indicted him last year on charges he secretly brokered the launch from Russia of the first Iranian-owned satellite in 2005, in violation of the U.S. sanctions against Iran.
If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to 65 years in prison and ordered to pay $10 million. Five Iranian nationals were also indicted, but none are in custody. Click here to read the article. (6/27)
Rocket Launch Preparations to be Automated at Vostochny Spaceport (Source: Itar-Tass)
Operations preparing a rocket for takeoff will be automated at Russia’s new Vostochny spaceport. “The testing of every system, [except payload and fueling] will be fully automated,” an official said. "[Starting with delivery to the launch pad; the rocket will undergo comprehensive tests and a spare day will be given for preparations if necessary. So, the entire process will take no more than two or three days.”
As for the development of a medium rocket for Vostochny, he did not rule out certain changes in technical specifications. “Initial specifications said that the rocket must carry a payload of no less than 23 tons. Yet a lesser weight was suggested at the latest meeting of the Federal Space Agency,” he said. (6/27)
NASA Set to Launch DOD Rocket from Virginia Spaceport (Source: AP)
NASA is preparing to launch a Department of Defense satellite from the Wallops Flight Facility at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia. The Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket is scheduled for launch Tuesday. The Minotaur 1 rocket is about 70 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It's set for launch between 8:28 p.m. and 11:28 p.m. The backup launch days are Wednesday through July 10. This will be the fourth Minotaur 1 rocket launched from Wallops Flight Facility and the spaceport since 2006. (6/27)
June 26, 2011
You Can Hunt for Icy Worlds (Source: Space Daily)
A team at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has developed a new website, IceHunters, to challenge the public to discover Kuiper Belt objects in the outer solar system. It is hoped that among the myriad of new objects found by IceHunters there will be an object (or maybe even objects) with just the right orbit to carry it on to a rendezvous with NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
Scientists have calculated where in the sky an object moving toward a potential meeting with the New Horizons spacecraft should currently be located, and they have used some of the largest telescopes in the world to image this region. Now, those images are provided to the public for searching via IceHunters. (6/26)
Spain Aims at Military-Civilian Satellites (Source: UPI)
Spain is on track to become the first European country to have a dual Earth observation system, radar and optical, for both civilian and military use. Defense Minister Carme Chacon said radar technology installed on the satellite, which is totally of Spanish design and manufacture, will enable up to 100 images of the Earth's surface to be taken per day at a resolution of up to 1 yard. In three years' time, this capacity will be joined by that of the Ingenio satellite and its optical technology. (6/26)
The Shuttle's Last Flight (Source: Guardian)
In a few days, four astronauts will take the lift to the top of the launch tower at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and settle in their seats on the space shuttle Atlantis. The crew will wait patiently until, with only eight seconds of countdown remaining, the shuttle's massive turbo pumps will force several hundred thousand gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen together inside the spacecraft's three main engines.
In seconds, temperatures in the engines will soar to 6,000C and super-heated steam will blast from the spaceship. Two boosters, containing an explosive mixture of aluminum powder and perchlorate oxidizer, will be ignited; the giant bolts holding the straining shuttle to the ground will be blown open and, if all goes well, Atlantis will rise on a pillar of white vapor on its way into orbit – and history. The last flight of a space shuttle will have begun. (6/26)
Discover Oklahoma: Focus on Oklahoma Astronauts (Source: The Oklahoman)
Historians often have focused on Oklahoma's pioneer legacy, from Indian Territory to land runs, early statehood and the development of towns and cities, but Oklahomans also have helped pioneer aviation and the exploration of space. Starting with Gordon Cooper in 1959, eight astronauts with Oklahoma background have joined crews on significant space missions. Scientists and engineers from Oklahoma also have played significant roles.
Now, the Oklahoma Historical Society has expanded its aviation and space exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. In addition, Oklahoma's role in space is celebrated by “Oklahomans and Space,” a new highly visual book by Bill Moore, a former historical society film archivist. (6/26)
Space Academy in Alabama Caters to Adult Wannabe Astronauts (Source: Columbus Dispatch)
Thanks to the Adult Space Academy offered at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville at the end of each summer, I now understood the attraction of baseball fantasy camps and the like. After I arrived for my two-night stay, I spent some time before check-in at the center's Davidson Center for Space Exploration museum, which is a space-geek destination in itself. (6/26)
First Serbian in Space (Source: SE Times)
The owner and director of an IT high school in Novi Sad, 32-year-old Nebojsa Jovanovic will be one of the first space tourists that will fly from the United States in 2012, organized by the British company Virgin Galactic. Initially, Jovanovic had little hope of being selected, but soon after registering, received a phone call from London.
"I could not believe I entered the selection so easily," Jovanovic said. When I realized that I'm indeed among the first in the world to reserve a seat for space travel, giving up was not an option!" Jovanovic said he is an adventurer by nature. He has visited many remote and inaccessible places in the world and the space tour will be the seal on all of his adventures, he said. (6/24)
Canadian Teen Could Become Youngest Space Tourist (Source: CTV)
A Canadian teen could become the youngest person ever to go into space. The 17-year-old Calgary boy is among hundreds of space tourists who have already reserved their place for a flight into the cosmos. So far, 440 individuals have paid deposits for trips aboard billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceships and are waiting for final tests to be completed. The teenager didn't want to be identified.
Virgin Galactic won't fly anyone under 18. The travel agent says it could be another year or two before the teenager, who will be accompanied by a parent, will actually fly, but in the meantime his family doesn't want him doing any interviews. (6/26)
Russia to the Rescue in NASA Back-Up Plan (Source: Florida Today)
If Atlantis is damaged so severely that it becomes unsafe for re-entry, the crew's visit could get a lot longer, with at least one of them unlikely to get home again until next May. The crew would stay on the station and make staggered returns on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. To accomplish that, NASA would forgo the launch of U.S. astronauts to the station to free up seats on the Russian ships.
Since Columbia and seven astronauts were lost during atmospheric re-entry in 2003, when heat shield damage went undetected, NASA always has had a second shuttle ready for a rescue mission. But this time, there's no backup. "It's a well thought out but lengthy process," Atlantis mission commander Chris Ferguson said. It's also highly unlikely it will have to be put to use. (6/26)
Politics Won't Stop Space Innovation (Source: Florida Today)
Human curiosity can't be contained. The desire to explore is strong. The longing of innovators and visionaries to venture deeper into our solar system, and beyond, will not be derailed by the political paralysis plaguing the nation's space agency. While NASA studies, starts, cancels -- then restudies and restarts again -- efforts to continue human space exploration, it may seem progress is stymied.
The agency is under assault from Congress for not fielding a shuttle follow-up program. The politicos are too focused on micromanaging the "ship-building" or, more specifically, rocketship-building that best benefits their state or district or -- cynics might say -- their favorite contractors. Little of their guidance seems focused on what makes the most sense for the United States or humankind.
Visionaries like Robert Bigelow in Las Vegas and Elon Musk in California are trying to change the game. Yes, they're doing some work on smallish NASA contracts. The space agency is tied in to parts of their work and deserves credit for that. (6/24)
As Military Launch Costs Soar, Would-Be Competitors Protest (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA workers looking for a job after space shuttle Atlantis' final flight likely won't have much luck at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which has launched a generation of military and national-intelligence satellites. The military-rocket business isn't doing too well — at least according to United Launch Alliance.
Company officials said the cost of parts has gone up, and the uncertainty of post-shuttle work at NASA has resulted in subcontractors raising prices. As a result, ULA is sharply increasing the prices it charges the Defense Department to launch military satellites, prompting the Air Force to raise its projected launch costs by nearly 50 percent during the next four years.
In addition, the company is demanding — and federal officials are acquiescing — that government agencies commit to buying more rockets than they're likely to need from 2013 to 2017. Newcomers like SpaceX are protesting that this perpetuates ULA's monopoly dominance of the market. The result, they contend, will restrict competition, ensure higher launch costs — and ultimately reduce the number of rockets that government agencies and private companies can afford to launch. (6/26)
Despite High-Profile Failure, Diverse Contracts Position Orbital for Growth (Source: Arizona Republic)
Orbital Sciences Corp. was riding a wave of success when disaster struck in early March. The company was preparing to celebrate its first year in a state-of-the-art satellite facility in Arizona. It had landed a contract for 81 Iridium NEXT satellites. Work on the first of what are expected to be several Earth monitoring satellites was progressing nicely, with a launch date set for late 2012.
But when a faulty Orbital Sciences rocket designed and engineered in Chandler failed to deliver a $424 million satellite into orbit for NASA, disappointment and investigations ensued. The mishap occurred when the rocket's nose-cone fairing encasing the Glory satellite did not separate. It was the second unsuccessful launch in two years of a Taurus XL rocket and an Orbital-built NASA Earth-orbiting satellite, projects that cost $700 million and years of work.
Despite its NASA failures, industry analysts say the company is well-positioned for growth, and its local facilities are poised to take business away from larger companies. The Arizona factory has excess capacity but is beginning to fill up, and the company is expected to land its share of future military and intelligence satellite work. Click here to read the article. (6/26)
Rocket Launch Set for Tuesday at Wallops (Source: Baltimore Sun)
If skies are clear and all goes well Tuesday evening, observers throughout Maryland and much of the Mid-Atlantic region should be able to watch a big rocket launch from Virginia's Wallops Island. The Air Force will attempt to launch a battlefield imaging satellite into orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
The ORS-1 satellite will ride atop a four-stage, solid-fuel Minotaur 1 rocket, the largest ever launched from the Delmarva peninsula. Previous Minotaur launches have been seen from as far away as southern New England, eastern North Carolina and the eastern half of West Virginia. But visitors to the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia beaches will have a front-row seat. (6/25)
Coats Expects Johnson Space Center Cutbacks (Source: Bay Area Citizen)
Employees of aerospace companies aren’t the only ones headed for the unemployment line. Johnson Space Center Director Mike Coats thinks there probably will be a slight adjustment at JSC also. “Our center is already scheduled to receive about $1.5 billion less in Fiscal Year 2012 than in the current year, when we received about $6 billion,” he said. "[Significant reductions are] almost guaranteed. It is true that 2011 and 2012 will be transition years for our center." (6/26)
White Sands Space Harbor will Permanently Close in August (Source: Alamogordo Daily News)
The White Sands Space Harbor, the landing site for the STS-3 in 1982, will be closing its doors after 35 years due to the end of the space shuttle program; the last launch is scheduled to take place in July. Several NASA officials from Houston and a handful of astronauts were present during an unofficial ceremony June 13 that honored the long hours and hard work White Sands Space Harbor employees contributed to shuttle missions and extensive astronaut pilot training. (6/26)
Help Wanted: Replacement for Rockets (Source: USA Today)
Amid a fierce fight today among firms to build a rocket to replace the space shuttle, some of the development dough would be better spent on a newer technology than one invented by Chinese alchemists at least eight centuries ago, chemical rockets.
All chemical rockets, whether using solid fuels or liquid fuels, rely on chemical energy, in a process better known as burning, to thrust a rocket skyward. There is only so much energy released in breaking the bonds between atoms that this entails. Aerospace engineers rate the efficiency of propellants in terms of "specific impulse," the change in momentum each pound of fuel provides, a quantity measured in seconds. For chemical rockets, this value tops out around 453 seconds, seen in the space shuttle's main engines.
That's pretty low. For comparison, the ion thrusters aboard NASA's Dawn mission now closing in on the asteroid Vesta, which rely on radio waves liberating electrons from Xenon gas atoms, have a specific impulse of 3,100 seconds. Sadly, ion rockets provide thrusts far too weak to get a piece of paper off the ground, much less a satellite. Click here to read the article. (6/26)
LightSquared/GPS Fight Goes International (Source: NextGov)
The battle over plans by LightSquared to start up a broadband network that could interfere with GPS has gone international, with the United Nations body that oversees air navigation standards concerned about the system potentially disrupting aviation operations. This nugget of information is buried deep inside a briefing memo, prepared for members of House subcommittees that oversee aviation and the Coast Guard. (6/26)
Ariane Rocket Aims to Pick Up the Pace (Source: BBC)
There's a stage as you move towards middle-age when you think you might be getting on top of things - that you can handle most of anything that's chucked at you. Then you look at what the youngsters are doing and you suddenly realize you'd better up your game or you could be overrun.
So it is with Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. After a troublesome youth, the vehicle has matured into an ultra-reliable performer. Its consistency - 44 successful missions on the bounce - means it is now the number one choice to launch a big commercial telecommunications satellite. A half of all these spacecraft that go into orbit each year will ride Europe's "battle-horse" launcher.
And yet, even as Ariane sits on top of the pack, there's a recognition it needs to move forward. The market in which it functions is currently enjoying strong orders, a consequence of the fact that many satellite owners are in the process of upgrading their fleets. Arianespace has benefited from this buoyancy and currently has a backlog of satellites waiting to launch that is worth some four billion euros (£3.5bn). (6/26)
Test Stand Fire Threatens Taurus 2 Launch Schedule (Source: Space News)
An Aerojet AJ-26 main engine undergoing acceptance testing for the inaugural flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Taurus 2 rocket was badly damaged June 9 when a metal fuel line ruptured, causing the engine and test stand to catch fire, according to a source with knowledge of the mishap. The fuel line that failed was part of the engine, not the test stand, the source said. The AJ-26 team investigating the mishap suspects a flaw in the metal used for that particular fuel line.
Three AJ-26 engines have completed acceptance testing at Stennis and been delivered to Orbital’s Taurus 2 integration facility at Wallops Island. Two of those engines were intended to be used for an upcoming hold-down test of the Taurus 2’s first stage and then refurbished for the rocket’s second flight. The other engine already at Wallops was to have been paired with the now-damaged engine for the Taurus 2’s maiden launch, targeted for October.
That launch — a demonstration flight meant to help qualify the vehicle to launch cargo capsules bound for the international space station — now appears likely to slip at least a month since the next available engine still must undergo acceptance testing at Stennis, according to the source. (6/25)
SpaceShipTwo Keeps Passing Glide Tests with Flying Colors (Source: Space.com)
SpaceShipTwo, a privately built rocket plane designed to take tourists on suborbital flights, continues to chalk up more flight time as it glides through the skies over the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Another successful glide test took place June 23, marking the 14th for the vessel — an 8-minute, 55-second free fall after midair release from its mothership. The test came a week after VSS Enterprise proved it could be flown on back-to-back days. (6/24)
White House Raises Milspace Concerns In Bill (Source: Aviation Week)
The Obama administration is warning that House defense spending language for fiscal 2012 could, if enacted, delay or derail several military space and satellite programs. According to the White House statement of administration policy over H.R. 2219, issued June 23, programs that could be affected include the Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS), the Deep Space Climate Observatory (Dscovr) Spacecraft and the Assured Satcom Services in Single Theater (Assist). (6/25)
Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27 (Source: NASA JPL)
Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the Earth's surface on June 27 at about 9:30 EDT. This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. If a rocky asteroid the size of 2011 MD were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would be expected to burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth's surface. (6/25)
House Appropriators Again Deny Pu-238 Funding in DOE Bill (Source: Space Policy Online)
Once again, congressional appropriators have turned down the Administration's request for funding within the Department of Energy (DOE) bill to restart production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) needed for NASA's space probes. A Committee report said that it remained concerned that the Administration wants DOE to pay for half the costs when it is NASA that benefits from the Pu-238.
"The Committee remains concerned that the Administration continues to request equal funding from NASA and the Department of Energy for a project that primarily benefits NASA. The Committee provides no funds for this project, and encourages the Administration to devise a plan for this project that more closely aligns the costs paid by federal agencies with the benefits they receive."
This is the third time Congress has said no to providing DOE funds. Historically DOE has built all of NASA's radioisotope power supplies (RPS's). DOE is the only U.S. entity permitted by law to make or store nuclear materials. NASA uses RPS's to provide warmth and electricity for spacecraft that travel too far from the Sun to use solar energy or spend long periods in darkness on lunar or planetary surfaces. (6/25)
Sierra Nevada Completes Milestones for NASA Commercial Crew Program (Source: SNC)
Sierra Nevada Space Systems (SNC) has completed two significant milestones under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) Program. On June 1, SNC completed its DreamChaser Systems Requirement Review (SRR), validating the design against NASA’s draft Commercial Crew Program Requirements.
Two weeks later, SNC completed a review of the selection of the improved airfoil fin shape to be used on the DreamChaser. The fin will improve the handling qualities of the spacecraft as it flies in the atmosphere on return from space to a gentle runway landing. Wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics analyses were used to complete the fin selection milestone work, according to SNC's president. (6/24)
Space Coast Faces Uncertain Future (Source: St. Pete Times)
This East Central Florida region is still clutching to a Space Coast-light identity with a small but growing cluster of jobs connected to commercial space exploration through companies such as California-based SpaceX. Economic development leaders envision glory days returning someday with the region a national focal point not just for launching rockets but building satellites, developing defense radar systems and dissecting the scientific riches discovered in space.
Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, is sticking with the goal he set in late 2009 when he was tapped to run the state-created economic development arm for aerospace — namely, tripling Florida's aerospace industry within 10 years. "Absolutely … it will happen," he said. "There will be a major next-generation space program, and Florida will play a key role."
But nobody is fooling themselves that the transition will be easy. More pain lies ahead as about 2,300 more space-related jobs disappear in July alone. "I don't want you to feel for a minute that we're in any way underestimating this challenge," said Lynda Weatherman. "We're in for a tough three years." The challenge is keeping the talent cluster tethered to the area as the economy recovers and a new technological base of higher-paying jobs takes root. (6/26)
A team at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has developed a new website, IceHunters, to challenge the public to discover Kuiper Belt objects in the outer solar system. It is hoped that among the myriad of new objects found by IceHunters there will be an object (or maybe even objects) with just the right orbit to carry it on to a rendezvous with NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
Scientists have calculated where in the sky an object moving toward a potential meeting with the New Horizons spacecraft should currently be located, and they have used some of the largest telescopes in the world to image this region. Now, those images are provided to the public for searching via IceHunters. (6/26)
Spain Aims at Military-Civilian Satellites (Source: UPI)
Spain is on track to become the first European country to have a dual Earth observation system, radar and optical, for both civilian and military use. Defense Minister Carme Chacon said radar technology installed on the satellite, which is totally of Spanish design and manufacture, will enable up to 100 images of the Earth's surface to be taken per day at a resolution of up to 1 yard. In three years' time, this capacity will be joined by that of the Ingenio satellite and its optical technology. (6/26)
The Shuttle's Last Flight (Source: Guardian)
In a few days, four astronauts will take the lift to the top of the launch tower at Cape Canaveral in Florida, and settle in their seats on the space shuttle Atlantis. The crew will wait patiently until, with only eight seconds of countdown remaining, the shuttle's massive turbo pumps will force several hundred thousand gallons of liquid hydrogen and oxygen together inside the spacecraft's three main engines.
In seconds, temperatures in the engines will soar to 6,000C and super-heated steam will blast from the spaceship. Two boosters, containing an explosive mixture of aluminum powder and perchlorate oxidizer, will be ignited; the giant bolts holding the straining shuttle to the ground will be blown open and, if all goes well, Atlantis will rise on a pillar of white vapor on its way into orbit – and history. The last flight of a space shuttle will have begun. (6/26)
Discover Oklahoma: Focus on Oklahoma Astronauts (Source: The Oklahoman)
Historians often have focused on Oklahoma's pioneer legacy, from Indian Territory to land runs, early statehood and the development of towns and cities, but Oklahomans also have helped pioneer aviation and the exploration of space. Starting with Gordon Cooper in 1959, eight astronauts with Oklahoma background have joined crews on significant space missions. Scientists and engineers from Oklahoma also have played significant roles.
Now, the Oklahoma Historical Society has expanded its aviation and space exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City. In addition, Oklahoma's role in space is celebrated by “Oklahomans and Space,” a new highly visual book by Bill Moore, a former historical society film archivist. (6/26)
Space Academy in Alabama Caters to Adult Wannabe Astronauts (Source: Columbus Dispatch)
Thanks to the Adult Space Academy offered at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville at the end of each summer, I now understood the attraction of baseball fantasy camps and the like. After I arrived for my two-night stay, I spent some time before check-in at the center's Davidson Center for Space Exploration museum, which is a space-geek destination in itself. (6/26)
First Serbian in Space (Source: SE Times)
The owner and director of an IT high school in Novi Sad, 32-year-old Nebojsa Jovanovic will be one of the first space tourists that will fly from the United States in 2012, organized by the British company Virgin Galactic. Initially, Jovanovic had little hope of being selected, but soon after registering, received a phone call from London.
"I could not believe I entered the selection so easily," Jovanovic said. When I realized that I'm indeed among the first in the world to reserve a seat for space travel, giving up was not an option!" Jovanovic said he is an adventurer by nature. He has visited many remote and inaccessible places in the world and the space tour will be the seal on all of his adventures, he said. (6/24)
Canadian Teen Could Become Youngest Space Tourist (Source: CTV)
A Canadian teen could become the youngest person ever to go into space. The 17-year-old Calgary boy is among hundreds of space tourists who have already reserved their place for a flight into the cosmos. So far, 440 individuals have paid deposits for trips aboard billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceships and are waiting for final tests to be completed. The teenager didn't want to be identified.
Virgin Galactic won't fly anyone under 18. The travel agent says it could be another year or two before the teenager, who will be accompanied by a parent, will actually fly, but in the meantime his family doesn't want him doing any interviews. (6/26)
Russia to the Rescue in NASA Back-Up Plan (Source: Florida Today)
If Atlantis is damaged so severely that it becomes unsafe for re-entry, the crew's visit could get a lot longer, with at least one of them unlikely to get home again until next May. The crew would stay on the station and make staggered returns on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. To accomplish that, NASA would forgo the launch of U.S. astronauts to the station to free up seats on the Russian ships.
Since Columbia and seven astronauts were lost during atmospheric re-entry in 2003, when heat shield damage went undetected, NASA always has had a second shuttle ready for a rescue mission. But this time, there's no backup. "It's a well thought out but lengthy process," Atlantis mission commander Chris Ferguson said. It's also highly unlikely it will have to be put to use. (6/26)
Politics Won't Stop Space Innovation (Source: Florida Today)
Human curiosity can't be contained. The desire to explore is strong. The longing of innovators and visionaries to venture deeper into our solar system, and beyond, will not be derailed by the political paralysis plaguing the nation's space agency. While NASA studies, starts, cancels -- then restudies and restarts again -- efforts to continue human space exploration, it may seem progress is stymied.
The agency is under assault from Congress for not fielding a shuttle follow-up program. The politicos are too focused on micromanaging the "ship-building" or, more specifically, rocketship-building that best benefits their state or district or -- cynics might say -- their favorite contractors. Little of their guidance seems focused on what makes the most sense for the United States or humankind.
Visionaries like Robert Bigelow in Las Vegas and Elon Musk in California are trying to change the game. Yes, they're doing some work on smallish NASA contracts. The space agency is tied in to parts of their work and deserves credit for that. (6/24)
As Military Launch Costs Soar, Would-Be Competitors Protest (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
NASA workers looking for a job after space shuttle Atlantis' final flight likely won't have much luck at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which has launched a generation of military and national-intelligence satellites. The military-rocket business isn't doing too well — at least according to United Launch Alliance.
Company officials said the cost of parts has gone up, and the uncertainty of post-shuttle work at NASA has resulted in subcontractors raising prices. As a result, ULA is sharply increasing the prices it charges the Defense Department to launch military satellites, prompting the Air Force to raise its projected launch costs by nearly 50 percent during the next four years.
In addition, the company is demanding — and federal officials are acquiescing — that government agencies commit to buying more rockets than they're likely to need from 2013 to 2017. Newcomers like SpaceX are protesting that this perpetuates ULA's monopoly dominance of the market. The result, they contend, will restrict competition, ensure higher launch costs — and ultimately reduce the number of rockets that government agencies and private companies can afford to launch. (6/26)
Despite High-Profile Failure, Diverse Contracts Position Orbital for Growth (Source: Arizona Republic)
Orbital Sciences Corp. was riding a wave of success when disaster struck in early March. The company was preparing to celebrate its first year in a state-of-the-art satellite facility in Arizona. It had landed a contract for 81 Iridium NEXT satellites. Work on the first of what are expected to be several Earth monitoring satellites was progressing nicely, with a launch date set for late 2012.
But when a faulty Orbital Sciences rocket designed and engineered in Chandler failed to deliver a $424 million satellite into orbit for NASA, disappointment and investigations ensued. The mishap occurred when the rocket's nose-cone fairing encasing the Glory satellite did not separate. It was the second unsuccessful launch in two years of a Taurus XL rocket and an Orbital-built NASA Earth-orbiting satellite, projects that cost $700 million and years of work.
Despite its NASA failures, industry analysts say the company is well-positioned for growth, and its local facilities are poised to take business away from larger companies. The Arizona factory has excess capacity but is beginning to fill up, and the company is expected to land its share of future military and intelligence satellite work. Click here to read the article. (6/26)
Rocket Launch Set for Tuesday at Wallops (Source: Baltimore Sun)
If skies are clear and all goes well Tuesday evening, observers throughout Maryland and much of the Mid-Atlantic region should be able to watch a big rocket launch from Virginia's Wallops Island. The Air Force will attempt to launch a battlefield imaging satellite into orbit from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
The ORS-1 satellite will ride atop a four-stage, solid-fuel Minotaur 1 rocket, the largest ever launched from the Delmarva peninsula. Previous Minotaur launches have been seen from as far away as southern New England, eastern North Carolina and the eastern half of West Virginia. But visitors to the Maryland, Delaware and Virginia beaches will have a front-row seat. (6/25)
Coats Expects Johnson Space Center Cutbacks (Source: Bay Area Citizen)
Employees of aerospace companies aren’t the only ones headed for the unemployment line. Johnson Space Center Director Mike Coats thinks there probably will be a slight adjustment at JSC also. “Our center is already scheduled to receive about $1.5 billion less in Fiscal Year 2012 than in the current year, when we received about $6 billion,” he said. "[Significant reductions are] almost guaranteed. It is true that 2011 and 2012 will be transition years for our center." (6/26)
White Sands Space Harbor will Permanently Close in August (Source: Alamogordo Daily News)
The White Sands Space Harbor, the landing site for the STS-3 in 1982, will be closing its doors after 35 years due to the end of the space shuttle program; the last launch is scheduled to take place in July. Several NASA officials from Houston and a handful of astronauts were present during an unofficial ceremony June 13 that honored the long hours and hard work White Sands Space Harbor employees contributed to shuttle missions and extensive astronaut pilot training. (6/26)
Help Wanted: Replacement for Rockets (Source: USA Today)
Amid a fierce fight today among firms to build a rocket to replace the space shuttle, some of the development dough would be better spent on a newer technology than one invented by Chinese alchemists at least eight centuries ago, chemical rockets.
All chemical rockets, whether using solid fuels or liquid fuels, rely on chemical energy, in a process better known as burning, to thrust a rocket skyward. There is only so much energy released in breaking the bonds between atoms that this entails. Aerospace engineers rate the efficiency of propellants in terms of "specific impulse," the change in momentum each pound of fuel provides, a quantity measured in seconds. For chemical rockets, this value tops out around 453 seconds, seen in the space shuttle's main engines.
That's pretty low. For comparison, the ion thrusters aboard NASA's Dawn mission now closing in on the asteroid Vesta, which rely on radio waves liberating electrons from Xenon gas atoms, have a specific impulse of 3,100 seconds. Sadly, ion rockets provide thrusts far too weak to get a piece of paper off the ground, much less a satellite. Click here to read the article. (6/26)
LightSquared/GPS Fight Goes International (Source: NextGov)
The battle over plans by LightSquared to start up a broadband network that could interfere with GPS has gone international, with the United Nations body that oversees air navigation standards concerned about the system potentially disrupting aviation operations. This nugget of information is buried deep inside a briefing memo, prepared for members of House subcommittees that oversee aviation and the Coast Guard. (6/26)
Ariane Rocket Aims to Pick Up the Pace (Source: BBC)
There's a stage as you move towards middle-age when you think you might be getting on top of things - that you can handle most of anything that's chucked at you. Then you look at what the youngsters are doing and you suddenly realize you'd better up your game or you could be overrun.
So it is with Europe's Ariane 5 rocket. After a troublesome youth, the vehicle has matured into an ultra-reliable performer. Its consistency - 44 successful missions on the bounce - means it is now the number one choice to launch a big commercial telecommunications satellite. A half of all these spacecraft that go into orbit each year will ride Europe's "battle-horse" launcher.
And yet, even as Ariane sits on top of the pack, there's a recognition it needs to move forward. The market in which it functions is currently enjoying strong orders, a consequence of the fact that many satellite owners are in the process of upgrading their fleets. Arianespace has benefited from this buoyancy and currently has a backlog of satellites waiting to launch that is worth some four billion euros (£3.5bn). (6/26)
Test Stand Fire Threatens Taurus 2 Launch Schedule (Source: Space News)
An Aerojet AJ-26 main engine undergoing acceptance testing for the inaugural flight of Orbital Science Corp.’s Taurus 2 rocket was badly damaged June 9 when a metal fuel line ruptured, causing the engine and test stand to catch fire, according to a source with knowledge of the mishap. The fuel line that failed was part of the engine, not the test stand, the source said. The AJ-26 team investigating the mishap suspects a flaw in the metal used for that particular fuel line.
Three AJ-26 engines have completed acceptance testing at Stennis and been delivered to Orbital’s Taurus 2 integration facility at Wallops Island. Two of those engines were intended to be used for an upcoming hold-down test of the Taurus 2’s first stage and then refurbished for the rocket’s second flight. The other engine already at Wallops was to have been paired with the now-damaged engine for the Taurus 2’s maiden launch, targeted for October.
That launch — a demonstration flight meant to help qualify the vehicle to launch cargo capsules bound for the international space station — now appears likely to slip at least a month since the next available engine still must undergo acceptance testing at Stennis, according to the source. (6/25)
SpaceShipTwo Keeps Passing Glide Tests with Flying Colors (Source: Space.com)
SpaceShipTwo, a privately built rocket plane designed to take tourists on suborbital flights, continues to chalk up more flight time as it glides through the skies over the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Another successful glide test took place June 23, marking the 14th for the vessel — an 8-minute, 55-second free fall after midair release from its mothership. The test came a week after VSS Enterprise proved it could be flown on back-to-back days. (6/24)
White House Raises Milspace Concerns In Bill (Source: Aviation Week)
The Obama administration is warning that House defense spending language for fiscal 2012 could, if enacted, delay or derail several military space and satellite programs. According to the White House statement of administration policy over H.R. 2219, issued June 23, programs that could be affected include the Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS), the Deep Space Climate Observatory (Dscovr) Spacecraft and the Assured Satcom Services in Single Theater (Assist). (6/25)
Small Asteroid to Whip Past Earth on June 27 (Source: NASA JPL)
Near-Earth asteroid 2011 MD will pass only 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) above the Earth's surface on June 27 at about 9:30 EDT. This small asteroid, only 5-20 meters in diameter, is in a very Earth-like orbit about the Sun, but an orbital analysis indicates there is no chance it will actually strike Earth on Monday. If a rocky asteroid the size of 2011 MD were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would be expected to burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth's surface. (6/25)
House Appropriators Again Deny Pu-238 Funding in DOE Bill (Source: Space Policy Online)
Once again, congressional appropriators have turned down the Administration's request for funding within the Department of Energy (DOE) bill to restart production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) needed for NASA's space probes. A Committee report said that it remained concerned that the Administration wants DOE to pay for half the costs when it is NASA that benefits from the Pu-238.
"The Committee remains concerned that the Administration continues to request equal funding from NASA and the Department of Energy for a project that primarily benefits NASA. The Committee provides no funds for this project, and encourages the Administration to devise a plan for this project that more closely aligns the costs paid by federal agencies with the benefits they receive."
This is the third time Congress has said no to providing DOE funds. Historically DOE has built all of NASA's radioisotope power supplies (RPS's). DOE is the only U.S. entity permitted by law to make or store nuclear materials. NASA uses RPS's to provide warmth and electricity for spacecraft that travel too far from the Sun to use solar energy or spend long periods in darkness on lunar or planetary surfaces. (6/25)
Sierra Nevada Completes Milestones for NASA Commercial Crew Program (Source: SNC)
Sierra Nevada Space Systems (SNC) has completed two significant milestones under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) Program. On June 1, SNC completed its DreamChaser Systems Requirement Review (SRR), validating the design against NASA’s draft Commercial Crew Program Requirements.
Two weeks later, SNC completed a review of the selection of the improved airfoil fin shape to be used on the DreamChaser. The fin will improve the handling qualities of the spacecraft as it flies in the atmosphere on return from space to a gentle runway landing. Wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics analyses were used to complete the fin selection milestone work, according to SNC's president. (6/24)
Space Coast Faces Uncertain Future (Source: St. Pete Times)
This East Central Florida region is still clutching to a Space Coast-light identity with a small but growing cluster of jobs connected to commercial space exploration through companies such as California-based SpaceX. Economic development leaders envision glory days returning someday with the region a national focal point not just for launching rockets but building satellites, developing defense radar systems and dissecting the scientific riches discovered in space.
Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, is sticking with the goal he set in late 2009 when he was tapped to run the state-created economic development arm for aerospace — namely, tripling Florida's aerospace industry within 10 years. "Absolutely … it will happen," he said. "There will be a major next-generation space program, and Florida will play a key role."
But nobody is fooling themselves that the transition will be easy. More pain lies ahead as about 2,300 more space-related jobs disappear in July alone. "I don't want you to feel for a minute that we're in any way underestimating this challenge," said Lynda Weatherman. "We're in for a tough three years." The challenge is keeping the talent cluster tethered to the area as the economy recovers and a new technological base of higher-paying jobs takes root. (6/26)
June 25, 2011
European Data-relay Project Battling Headwinds (Source: Space News)
A European project to relay data from low-orbiting Earth observation satellites to ground users via satellites in higher orbit is proving more difficult than expected to organize as government agencies and the private sector debate who manages what risks, European government and industry officials said. The latest evidence that the European Data Relay System (EDRS) was in trouble came when a planned June 23 contract-signing ceremony for a dedicated EDRS satellite was canceled at the last minute because the signatories had not agreed on terms. (6/24)
Astronomers Reach for Stars to Discover New Cancer Therapy (Source: OSU)
Astronomers’ research on celestial bodies may have an impact on the human body. Ohio State University astronomers are working with medical physicists and radiation oncologists to develop a potential new radiation treatment – one that is intended to be tougher on tumors, but gentler on healthy tissue.
In studying how chemical elements emit and absorb radiation inside stars and around black holes, the astronomers discovered that heavy metals such as iron emit low-energy electrons when exposed to X-rays at specific energies. Their discovery raises the possibility that implants made from certain heavy elements could enable doctors to obliterate tumors with low-energy electrons, while exposing healthy tissue to much less radiation than is possible today. (6/24)
Senate Authorizers: AEHF Block Buy Must Save 20 Percent (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill June 17 that supports the U.S. Air Force’s plan to buy a pair of secure communications satellites with a fixed-price contract provided the service can prove it would cost 20 percent less than buying the satellites separately. (6/24)
NOAA Asks To Move $90M into Cash-strapped JPSS (Source: Space News)
NOAA on June 14 asked Congress to approve a revised 2011 spending plan that would shift $90 million lawmakers approved for other agency projects to a new polar-orbiting weather satellite program. NOAA proposes to boost spending on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to $471.9 million this year and pay for the increase in part by cutting spending on several of its other satellite programs. (6/24)
Inside Europe's Answer to NASA (Source: CBS)
ESA has 18 member states, mostly in Europe, but also including Canada, and it is NASA's counterpart across the pond. As for ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Center), it has a number of different mandates, but broadly speaking, they fall into four main areas: Developing and managing ESA missions; Supporting the ESA's space systems and associated technologies with technical and managerial expertise; Running an environmental test center for spacecraft; and providing the European space industry and corresponding institutions with logistical support. (6/24)
ESA to Fire Up Next-Gen Launcher (Source: Flight Global)
ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain has described 2011 as ESA's "year of launchers". He pushed that vision into the future by signing the Astrium-Avio-Snecma propulsion team to extend to a firing demonstration its work on a high-thrust cryogenic engine that could form the basis of ESA's next-generation launcher.
It will not fly until about 2025, but is intended to provide a medium-lift capability in a modular design, with a re-ignitable upper stage and options for strap-on solid propellant boosters offering extra thrust. ESA director of launchers Antonio Fabrizi said the basic configuration has yet to be decided, but that it is important to push ahead with this €60 million demonstration phase - work has been ongoing since 2007 - "to have something more complete" to evaluate. (6/24)
Nigeria Prepares to Launch Two Earth Observation Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
Nigeria has concluded plans to launch into orbit two satellites from Russia on July 7, a top government official with the country's National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has said. Director General of the agency Seidu Mohammed said the earth observation satellites, NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X, would be launched on July 7 aboard a Dnepr launch vehicle. (6/24)
LightSquared Interference Could Cause $96 Billion a Year in GPS Losses (Source: Inside GNSS)
Research released yesterday (June 22, 2011) indicates that interference from LightSquared cellular broadband transmitters could cost manufacturers and users of commercial GPS technology up to $96 billion. A study prepared by NDP Consulting Group, “The Economic Benefits of Commercial GPS Use in the United States and the Costs of Potential Disruption,” presented results that assumed two levels of interference: a 50 percent and a total disruption of GPS positioning. (6/24)
Advance Orders Keeping ULA on the Launch Pad (Source: Denver Business Journal)
United Launch Alliance CEO Michael Gass sees a bright future for the company with new kinds of launches. He doesn’t expect the ups and downs of the aerospace industry to hurt his rocket-launch company. The Colorado-based giant launches missions contracted by clients several years in advance, meaning it’s currently launching missions bought before the national recession and federal belt tightening. So, while Lockheed Martin plans to cut 1,200 jobs this year, ULA has a busy manifest of monthly launches for the foreseeable future. (6/24)
A European project to relay data from low-orbiting Earth observation satellites to ground users via satellites in higher orbit is proving more difficult than expected to organize as government agencies and the private sector debate who manages what risks, European government and industry officials said. The latest evidence that the European Data Relay System (EDRS) was in trouble came when a planned June 23 contract-signing ceremony for a dedicated EDRS satellite was canceled at the last minute because the signatories had not agreed on terms. (6/24)
Astronomers Reach for Stars to Discover New Cancer Therapy (Source: OSU)
Astronomers’ research on celestial bodies may have an impact on the human body. Ohio State University astronomers are working with medical physicists and radiation oncologists to develop a potential new radiation treatment – one that is intended to be tougher on tumors, but gentler on healthy tissue.
In studying how chemical elements emit and absorb radiation inside stars and around black holes, the astronomers discovered that heavy metals such as iron emit low-energy electrons when exposed to X-rays at specific energies. Their discovery raises the possibility that implants made from certain heavy elements could enable doctors to obliterate tumors with low-energy electrons, while exposing healthy tissue to much less radiation than is possible today. (6/24)
Senate Authorizers: AEHF Block Buy Must Save 20 Percent (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee passed a bill June 17 that supports the U.S. Air Force’s plan to buy a pair of secure communications satellites with a fixed-price contract provided the service can prove it would cost 20 percent less than buying the satellites separately. (6/24)
NOAA Asks To Move $90M into Cash-strapped JPSS (Source: Space News)
NOAA on June 14 asked Congress to approve a revised 2011 spending plan that would shift $90 million lawmakers approved for other agency projects to a new polar-orbiting weather satellite program. NOAA proposes to boost spending on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to $471.9 million this year and pay for the increase in part by cutting spending on several of its other satellite programs. (6/24)
Inside Europe's Answer to NASA (Source: CBS)
ESA has 18 member states, mostly in Europe, but also including Canada, and it is NASA's counterpart across the pond. As for ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Center), it has a number of different mandates, but broadly speaking, they fall into four main areas: Developing and managing ESA missions; Supporting the ESA's space systems and associated technologies with technical and managerial expertise; Running an environmental test center for spacecraft; and providing the European space industry and corresponding institutions with logistical support. (6/24)
ESA to Fire Up Next-Gen Launcher (Source: Flight Global)
ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain has described 2011 as ESA's "year of launchers". He pushed that vision into the future by signing the Astrium-Avio-Snecma propulsion team to extend to a firing demonstration its work on a high-thrust cryogenic engine that could form the basis of ESA's next-generation launcher.
It will not fly until about 2025, but is intended to provide a medium-lift capability in a modular design, with a re-ignitable upper stage and options for strap-on solid propellant boosters offering extra thrust. ESA director of launchers Antonio Fabrizi said the basic configuration has yet to be decided, but that it is important to push ahead with this €60 million demonstration phase - work has been ongoing since 2007 - "to have something more complete" to evaluate. (6/24)
Nigeria Prepares to Launch Two Earth Observation Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
Nigeria has concluded plans to launch into orbit two satellites from Russia on July 7, a top government official with the country's National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) has said. Director General of the agency Seidu Mohammed said the earth observation satellites, NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X, would be launched on July 7 aboard a Dnepr launch vehicle. (6/24)
LightSquared Interference Could Cause $96 Billion a Year in GPS Losses (Source: Inside GNSS)
Research released yesterday (June 22, 2011) indicates that interference from LightSquared cellular broadband transmitters could cost manufacturers and users of commercial GPS technology up to $96 billion. A study prepared by NDP Consulting Group, “The Economic Benefits of Commercial GPS Use in the United States and the Costs of Potential Disruption,” presented results that assumed two levels of interference: a 50 percent and a total disruption of GPS positioning. (6/24)
Advance Orders Keeping ULA on the Launch Pad (Source: Denver Business Journal)
United Launch Alliance CEO Michael Gass sees a bright future for the company with new kinds of launches. He doesn’t expect the ups and downs of the aerospace industry to hurt his rocket-launch company. The Colorado-based giant launches missions contracted by clients several years in advance, meaning it’s currently launching missions bought before the national recession and federal belt tightening. So, while Lockheed Martin plans to cut 1,200 jobs this year, ULA has a busy manifest of monthly launches for the foreseeable future. (6/24)
June 24, 2011
Shuttle Workers Prepare Discovery for Museum Duty (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
Technicians readying the shuttle Discovery for public display say the retired spaceship will be ready to leave the Kennedy Space Center in February for its new home at a Smithsonian museum annex near Washington.
But the veteran spacecraft's piggyback journey atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft will likely not begin until April due to potential wintry weather along the East Coast, according to Stephanie Stilson, the NASA manager leading the shuttle retirement work at KSC. The specialized Shuttle Carrier Aircraft can only fly through fair weather with an orbiter riding piggyback. (6/24)
KSC Will Host 150 People for Tweetup at Launch of Jupiter-Bound Mission (Source: NASA)
NASA will host a two-day launch Tweetup for 150 of its Twitter followers on Aug. 4-5 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Tweetup is expected to culminate in the launch of the Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket. The launch window opens at 11:39 a.m. EDT on Aug. 5.
Tweetup registration opens at 3 p.m. EDT on June 24, and closes at 3 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 27. NASA will randomly select 150 participants from online registrations. For more information about the Tweetup and registration, click here. (6/24)
Space Coast Artist Exhibits Shuttle Homage in New York Gallery (Source: Florida Today)
Malabar artist Lloyd Behrendt pays homage to the end of the space shuttle era with an exhibition of his photographic art at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York City. Four of his works will be part of the gallery's "Melodies of the Moon and Sky" exhibition running through July 5.
Behrendt is well known for his enthusiasm surrounding the space program and Brevard County's cultural community, especially through his active leadership on the Brevard Cultural Alliance board of directors. Since 1966, he has photographed about 300 launches from Cape Canaveral. He creates black-and-white silver prints, then adds color with oil pencils. Click here. (6/24)
OHB Buys SSC’s Space Systems Division (Source: Space News)
Fast-growing satellite and rocket hardware manufacturer OHB of Germany, which already has operations in Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg, has established a foothold in Sweden with the purchase of the Space Systems division of SSC, officials with the companies said. The transaction, described as an asset deal in which OHB assumes the risks of the Space Systems division’s future performance, was concluded for a symbolic price of 1 Swedish krona, or about 15 U.S. cents. (6/24)
Orion Spacecraft on Display in Tallahassee (Source: Tallahassee Democrat)
More than 500 people from all over the world have traveled into space. However, only 24 of those individuals have gone more than a few hundred miles from the earth's surface. That's about to change, says Larry Price, Orion deputy program manager at Lockheed Martin. Orion is NASA's latest project -- a spacecraft that will have the capability to carry humans deep into space.
"This spacecraft will allow astronauts to travel to other planets and asteroids," Price said. "It will help us learn about our solar system and how to possibly change the path of asteroids." Today and Saturday the Tallahassee community will have the chance to see the spacecraft during a special visit at the Challenger Learning Center. It will be set up outside at Kleman Plaza.
"We are the perfect fit for (the visit)," said Chelsea Bundschuh, CLC marketing assistant. "We are a nonprofit that uses space to educate to the youth. We also have a summer camp going on right now and this week the camp is focused on rockets. The kids are really excited." (6/24)
SpaceWorks Releases Report on Space Based Solar Power Demonstrator (SpaceWorks)
Niche markets (military installations, developing nation remote power, etc.) may be potential markets where Space Solar Power (SSP) satellites may be economically viable, given certain government support and Earth-to-Orbit launch cost assumptions. An operational demonstrator could be one approach for those markets.
The SSP First Revenue Satellite (FRS). The FRS would be a mid-power (1-20 MW of delivered power) space-to-ground demonstrator of SSP. The purpose would be two-fold, prove the end-to-end technical capability and then demonstrate operations over multiple years. Click here to see the article and download the paper/presentation. (6/24)
3 Questions About NASA's New Heavy-Lift Rocket Plan (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Congress mandates that NASA build a new heavy-lift rocket to take the place of the retiring space shuttles and the canceled Constellation program, one capable of taking astronauts into orbit and far beyond. Now the first steps of NASA's plan have been released, but PM contributor Rand Simberg says this proposal's complexity and politically driven makeup could mean that it will never produce a flyable vehicle. Click here. (6/23)
NASA Defends Satellite Refueling Demo (Source: Space News)
NASA’s plans to demonstrate on-orbit satellite refueling and to encourage U.S. companies to enter that business is causing serious concern at MDA, the Canadian company that announced plans in March to build its own spacecraft servicing vehicle. Under contract with the Canadian Space Agency, MDA built the ISS Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, which will play integral role in NASA’s effort to demonstrate satellite repair and refueling.
Engineers at NASA built special tools for the MDA robot to enable controllers on the ground to use it in the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), which will last over approximately two years. NASA officials say that they have no intention of developing a satellite refueling business to compete with private industry. “The results of the RRM tests will be shared with everyone, including [MDA]. NASA is not doing this to compete with industry...NASA believes it will help reduce the eventual risk and cost to industry.”
Nevertheless, NASA’s satellite repair and refueling programs may help produce a U.S. competitor to the MDA project or encourage U.S. firms to play a role in multinational satellite servicing ventures, government and industry officials said. (6/24)
Europe Plans Commercial ZERO-G Aircraft Program (Source: Space Daily)
Once available only to astronauts and scientists, the weightless experience is about to become a bit more accessible, provided you've got the cash. An Airbus A300, owned by French aeronautics firm Novespace and run by France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) will be used for commercial flights, including one before the end of this year.
Final approval from France's civil aviation authority is pending, and the price tag -- provisionally set at 4,000 euros (5,700 dollars) -- has yet to be finalised. But Clervoy envisions half-a-dozen sorties a year with 40 passengers each starting in 2012. It would be only the third such commercial service in the world, along with one in the United States and one in Russia. (6/24)
Lockheed Martin Space Systems' Woes Worsen (Source: Aviation Week)
Lockheed Martin Space Systems will forfeit $15 million for issues related to a satellite for the U.S. Air Force, the latest in a series of performance issues. The defense contractor's space systems unit is planning to reduce its workforce by about 1,200 employees. "In today's economic environment, we have two choices: Make painful decisions now or pay a greater price down the road," said Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of the space division. (6/24)
White House Opposes Provisions in Defense Spending Bill (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration has threatened to veto the defense spending bill for 2012. "The administration strongly opposes a number of provisions in this bill. If a bill is presented to the President that undermines his ability as commander-in-chief or includes ideological or political policy riders, the president's senior advisors would recommend a veto," said the Office of Management and Budget. (6/24)
How Will We Regulate Commercial Space Flight? (Source: Forbes)
What if having a vibrant space program requires bypassing NASA? There exist great pressures for change despite NASA’s signature successes. Programs by companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are laying the groundwork for humanity’s next evolution in transportation, even if one is skeptical (as I am) about manned flights to asteroids or Mars.
Future generations’ ability to deliver goods or hop from New York to Tokyo or Sydney in the time it takes to ride the D.C. Metro today could utterly change the world yet again. But while it’s still early in the game, we should strive to keep regulators earthbound. The FAA calls low-earth orbit flight risky; pioneers like Branson say they’ll be safer than government-manned space flight.
Commercial space’s real hurdle is dealing with inevitable dangers in a grown-up way by fostering the right risk-management institutions. Basically, industries that don’t exist yet aren’t over-regulated yet, and thus have the potential to create extraordinary wealth. We must lay the groundwork for the fundamental risk-management-market institutions that enhance safety better than tossing everything to regulators. Click here. (6/24)
Revised Treaty Regime Would Foster Space Industry Growth (Source: Forbes)
We’ll inevitably need to revisit the global Outer Space Treaty that forbids or undermines commercial development of the moon or asteroids. In the 1400s, Spain, Portugal and England weren’t about to agree not to cross the oceans. A treaty-replacement “Homestead Act” type mindset encourages leaps forward, spurring advances in robotics, communications and nanotechnology. (6/24)
Europe Ends Independent Pursuit of Manned Space Travel (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Europe appears to have abandoned all hope of independently pursuing human space exploration, even as the region's politicians and aerospace industry leaders complain about shrinking U.S. commitment to various space ventures.
After years of sitting on the fence regarding a separate, pan-European manned space program, comments by senior government and industry officials at the Paris Air Show underscore that budget pressures and other shifting priorities have effectively killed that longtime dream. (6/24)
Space Research Brings New Ultrasound Tools for Healthcare (Source: NSBRI)
The remoteness and resource limitations of spaceflight pose a serious challenge to astronaut health care. One solution is ultrasound. Scientists with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have developed tools that expand the use of ultrasound during spaceflight and on Earth, especially in rural and underserved locations. These tools include techniques that streamline training and help remote experts guide non-physician astronauts to perform ultrasound exams.
Ultrasound can be used to assess numerous conditions – fractured bones, collapsed lungs, kidney stones, organ damage and other ailments – in space and on Earth. With an NSBRI grant, they also created a catalog, or atlas, of "space-normal" imagery of the human body, setting the stage for astronauts to provide care without consulting a physician on Earth. This atlas was handed over to NASA earlier this year. (6/24)
Space Station Welcomes Russian Cargo Ship Arrival (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The International Space Station received a cargo freighter Thursday when the Russian-made vessel loaded with three tons of supplies safely approached and docked on autopilot. The Progress M-11M spacecraft linked up to the station's Zvezda service module at 12:37 p.m. EDT while orbiting 245 miles above eastern Kazakhstan. (6/23)
Mars Rover Arrives at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
With its launch still at least five months away, NASA's Curiosity rover, the biggest and most advanced built to explore Mars, completed its journey from California to Kennedy Space Center this week. An Air Force C-17 transport plane on Wednesday delivered the rover and the descent stage that will help lower it to the Martian surface. (6/24)
Stern: Commercial Space Ready to Take the Lead (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
For too long, the economy of Florida's Space Coast has been too heavily dependent on a small number of huge government projects. This narrow business model calls to mind the adage "if you only own one stock, you probably deserve what you get when it goes down." Tragically, the state and the nation failed to learn this very lesson when the end of the Apollo program devastated Central Florida's economy in the 1970s.
Fortunately though, the dawning era of commercial American space efforts is giving rise to a far wider variety of new space systems and projects with refreshingly diverse markets and backers. The opportunity is there to create a Florida space economy that will be far more robust than any in the past 50 years.
These commercial space activities have the potential to create numerous manufacturing, launch and operations jobs in Florida, and also create engineering services, hotel and restaurant jobs, and possibly even new entertainment-themed attractions. They will significantly blunt the blow of the shuttle's demise. Click here. (6/24)
Huntsman: Space Policy will Come; Right Now it’s an Affordability Issue (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is not ready to outline his policies and plans for space flight — an issue eagerly watched by thousands of people employed or formerly employed by and around Kennedy Space Center — but suggested that the first order of business is watching the budget.
When asked Thursday about the long period NASA now faces before it can have a manned space flight program again, Huntsman began by talking about first getting the country’s economic house in order. He said space will be a part of that because of the “long term return on investment” from space projects.
“We always want to be at the cutting edge of space flight. Today it’s an affordability issue. When we get around to space policy, we’ll come down here and make sure people are fully aware of what our hopes are,” he said. (6/24)
LightSquared Needs More Tests, House Panelists Say (Source: Bloomberg)
Revamping navigation equipment on commercial aircraft to accommodate LightSquared would cost billions of dollars, and halt implementation of a new U.S. air-traffic control system called NextGen that is to use GPS, said Tom Hendricks, a senior vice president with the Air Transport Association.
LightSquared should face more tests of whether it interferes with the U.S. global positioning system before getting regulatory clearance, speakers at a congressional hearing said. Lawmakers “may request” that the FCC “allow time for full, comprehensive testing” of LightSquared’s proposal to operate on different airwaves than first planned, Representative Tom Petri said. (6/24)
Appropriations Amendment Aims To Protect GPS (Source: National Journal)
The House Appropriations Committee has waded into the controversy surrounding LightSquared's efforts to deploy its wireless broadband network and concerns that it will interfere with the use of global positioning systems used by both the government and private sector.
The committee Thursday adopted an amendment to the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for the Federal Communications Commission that would bar the agency from allowing LightSquared or any other broadband provider to move forward with a service that would interfere with GPS services. (6/24)
Dejection Drives ISRO Official to Commit Suicide (Source: Deccan Herald)
Depression got the better of 60-year-old Chandrashekar M, who committed suicide at the ISRO Satellite Center (ISAC), where he was an accounts officer. According to his family, Chandrashekar had been depressed for a long time and was also counseled at Nimhans recently.
He was also upset that he was taken to Nimhans and had even fought with his family, a police officer quoting one of the family members told Deccan Herald. Chandrashekar came to his office at about 7.30 am and hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his chamber. (6/24)
Moon Geyser Finding Significant, UCF Scientist Says (Source: UCF)
A team of international astronomers this week reported that a salt-water reservoir is the likely source of geyser plumes observed on Enceladus – one of Saturn’s moons. Joshua Colwell, a University of Central Florida physics professor who has been studying Saturn and its surrounding moons for years, said the discovery is significant because it rules out several theories about the source. (6/24)
Technicians readying the shuttle Discovery for public display say the retired spaceship will be ready to leave the Kennedy Space Center in February for its new home at a Smithsonian museum annex near Washington.
But the veteran spacecraft's piggyback journey atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft will likely not begin until April due to potential wintry weather along the East Coast, according to Stephanie Stilson, the NASA manager leading the shuttle retirement work at KSC. The specialized Shuttle Carrier Aircraft can only fly through fair weather with an orbiter riding piggyback. (6/24)
KSC Will Host 150 People for Tweetup at Launch of Jupiter-Bound Mission (Source: NASA)
NASA will host a two-day launch Tweetup for 150 of its Twitter followers on Aug. 4-5 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Tweetup is expected to culminate in the launch of the Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft aboard an Atlas V rocket. The launch window opens at 11:39 a.m. EDT on Aug. 5.
Tweetup registration opens at 3 p.m. EDT on June 24, and closes at 3 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 27. NASA will randomly select 150 participants from online registrations. For more information about the Tweetup and registration, click here. (6/24)
Space Coast Artist Exhibits Shuttle Homage in New York Gallery (Source: Florida Today)
Malabar artist Lloyd Behrendt pays homage to the end of the space shuttle era with an exhibition of his photographic art at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York City. Four of his works will be part of the gallery's "Melodies of the Moon and Sky" exhibition running through July 5.
Behrendt is well known for his enthusiasm surrounding the space program and Brevard County's cultural community, especially through his active leadership on the Brevard Cultural Alliance board of directors. Since 1966, he has photographed about 300 launches from Cape Canaveral. He creates black-and-white silver prints, then adds color with oil pencils. Click here. (6/24)
OHB Buys SSC’s Space Systems Division (Source: Space News)
Fast-growing satellite and rocket hardware manufacturer OHB of Germany, which already has operations in Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg, has established a foothold in Sweden with the purchase of the Space Systems division of SSC, officials with the companies said. The transaction, described as an asset deal in which OHB assumes the risks of the Space Systems division’s future performance, was concluded for a symbolic price of 1 Swedish krona, or about 15 U.S. cents. (6/24)
Orion Spacecraft on Display in Tallahassee (Source: Tallahassee Democrat)
More than 500 people from all over the world have traveled into space. However, only 24 of those individuals have gone more than a few hundred miles from the earth's surface. That's about to change, says Larry Price, Orion deputy program manager at Lockheed Martin. Orion is NASA's latest project -- a spacecraft that will have the capability to carry humans deep into space.
"This spacecraft will allow astronauts to travel to other planets and asteroids," Price said. "It will help us learn about our solar system and how to possibly change the path of asteroids." Today and Saturday the Tallahassee community will have the chance to see the spacecraft during a special visit at the Challenger Learning Center. It will be set up outside at Kleman Plaza.
"We are the perfect fit for (the visit)," said Chelsea Bundschuh, CLC marketing assistant. "We are a nonprofit that uses space to educate to the youth. We also have a summer camp going on right now and this week the camp is focused on rockets. The kids are really excited." (6/24)
SpaceWorks Releases Report on Space Based Solar Power Demonstrator (SpaceWorks)
Niche markets (military installations, developing nation remote power, etc.) may be potential markets where Space Solar Power (SSP) satellites may be economically viable, given certain government support and Earth-to-Orbit launch cost assumptions. An operational demonstrator could be one approach for those markets.
The SSP First Revenue Satellite (FRS). The FRS would be a mid-power (1-20 MW of delivered power) space-to-ground demonstrator of SSP. The purpose would be two-fold, prove the end-to-end technical capability and then demonstrate operations over multiple years. Click here to see the article and download the paper/presentation. (6/24)
3 Questions About NASA's New Heavy-Lift Rocket Plan (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Congress mandates that NASA build a new heavy-lift rocket to take the place of the retiring space shuttles and the canceled Constellation program, one capable of taking astronauts into orbit and far beyond. Now the first steps of NASA's plan have been released, but PM contributor Rand Simberg says this proposal's complexity and politically driven makeup could mean that it will never produce a flyable vehicle. Click here. (6/23)
NASA Defends Satellite Refueling Demo (Source: Space News)
NASA’s plans to demonstrate on-orbit satellite refueling and to encourage U.S. companies to enter that business is causing serious concern at MDA, the Canadian company that announced plans in March to build its own spacecraft servicing vehicle. Under contract with the Canadian Space Agency, MDA built the ISS Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, which will play integral role in NASA’s effort to demonstrate satellite repair and refueling.
Engineers at NASA built special tools for the MDA robot to enable controllers on the ground to use it in the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), which will last over approximately two years. NASA officials say that they have no intention of developing a satellite refueling business to compete with private industry. “The results of the RRM tests will be shared with everyone, including [MDA]. NASA is not doing this to compete with industry...NASA believes it will help reduce the eventual risk and cost to industry.”
Nevertheless, NASA’s satellite repair and refueling programs may help produce a U.S. competitor to the MDA project or encourage U.S. firms to play a role in multinational satellite servicing ventures, government and industry officials said. (6/24)
Europe Plans Commercial ZERO-G Aircraft Program (Source: Space Daily)
Once available only to astronauts and scientists, the weightless experience is about to become a bit more accessible, provided you've got the cash. An Airbus A300, owned by French aeronautics firm Novespace and run by France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) will be used for commercial flights, including one before the end of this year.
Final approval from France's civil aviation authority is pending, and the price tag -- provisionally set at 4,000 euros (5,700 dollars) -- has yet to be finalised. But Clervoy envisions half-a-dozen sorties a year with 40 passengers each starting in 2012. It would be only the third such commercial service in the world, along with one in the United States and one in Russia. (6/24)
Lockheed Martin Space Systems' Woes Worsen (Source: Aviation Week)
Lockheed Martin Space Systems will forfeit $15 million for issues related to a satellite for the U.S. Air Force, the latest in a series of performance issues. The defense contractor's space systems unit is planning to reduce its workforce by about 1,200 employees. "In today's economic environment, we have two choices: Make painful decisions now or pay a greater price down the road," said Joanne Maguire, executive vice president of the space division. (6/24)
White House Opposes Provisions in Defense Spending Bill (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The Obama administration has threatened to veto the defense spending bill for 2012. "The administration strongly opposes a number of provisions in this bill. If a bill is presented to the President that undermines his ability as commander-in-chief or includes ideological or political policy riders, the president's senior advisors would recommend a veto," said the Office of Management and Budget. (6/24)
How Will We Regulate Commercial Space Flight? (Source: Forbes)
What if having a vibrant space program requires bypassing NASA? There exist great pressures for change despite NASA’s signature successes. Programs by companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are laying the groundwork for humanity’s next evolution in transportation, even if one is skeptical (as I am) about manned flights to asteroids or Mars.
Future generations’ ability to deliver goods or hop from New York to Tokyo or Sydney in the time it takes to ride the D.C. Metro today could utterly change the world yet again. But while it’s still early in the game, we should strive to keep regulators earthbound. The FAA calls low-earth orbit flight risky; pioneers like Branson say they’ll be safer than government-manned space flight.
Commercial space’s real hurdle is dealing with inevitable dangers in a grown-up way by fostering the right risk-management institutions. Basically, industries that don’t exist yet aren’t over-regulated yet, and thus have the potential to create extraordinary wealth. We must lay the groundwork for the fundamental risk-management-market institutions that enhance safety better than tossing everything to regulators. Click here. (6/24)
Revised Treaty Regime Would Foster Space Industry Growth (Source: Forbes)
We’ll inevitably need to revisit the global Outer Space Treaty that forbids or undermines commercial development of the moon or asteroids. In the 1400s, Spain, Portugal and England weren’t about to agree not to cross the oceans. A treaty-replacement “Homestead Act” type mindset encourages leaps forward, spurring advances in robotics, communications and nanotechnology. (6/24)
Europe Ends Independent Pursuit of Manned Space Travel (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Europe appears to have abandoned all hope of independently pursuing human space exploration, even as the region's politicians and aerospace industry leaders complain about shrinking U.S. commitment to various space ventures.
After years of sitting on the fence regarding a separate, pan-European manned space program, comments by senior government and industry officials at the Paris Air Show underscore that budget pressures and other shifting priorities have effectively killed that longtime dream. (6/24)
Space Research Brings New Ultrasound Tools for Healthcare (Source: NSBRI)
The remoteness and resource limitations of spaceflight pose a serious challenge to astronaut health care. One solution is ultrasound. Scientists with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have developed tools that expand the use of ultrasound during spaceflight and on Earth, especially in rural and underserved locations. These tools include techniques that streamline training and help remote experts guide non-physician astronauts to perform ultrasound exams.
Ultrasound can be used to assess numerous conditions – fractured bones, collapsed lungs, kidney stones, organ damage and other ailments – in space and on Earth. With an NSBRI grant, they also created a catalog, or atlas, of "space-normal" imagery of the human body, setting the stage for astronauts to provide care without consulting a physician on Earth. This atlas was handed over to NASA earlier this year. (6/24)
Space Station Welcomes Russian Cargo Ship Arrival (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The International Space Station received a cargo freighter Thursday when the Russian-made vessel loaded with three tons of supplies safely approached and docked on autopilot. The Progress M-11M spacecraft linked up to the station's Zvezda service module at 12:37 p.m. EDT while orbiting 245 miles above eastern Kazakhstan. (6/23)
Mars Rover Arrives at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
With its launch still at least five months away, NASA's Curiosity rover, the biggest and most advanced built to explore Mars, completed its journey from California to Kennedy Space Center this week. An Air Force C-17 transport plane on Wednesday delivered the rover and the descent stage that will help lower it to the Martian surface. (6/24)
Stern: Commercial Space Ready to Take the Lead (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
For too long, the economy of Florida's Space Coast has been too heavily dependent on a small number of huge government projects. This narrow business model calls to mind the adage "if you only own one stock, you probably deserve what you get when it goes down." Tragically, the state and the nation failed to learn this very lesson when the end of the Apollo program devastated Central Florida's economy in the 1970s.
Fortunately though, the dawning era of commercial American space efforts is giving rise to a far wider variety of new space systems and projects with refreshingly diverse markets and backers. The opportunity is there to create a Florida space economy that will be far more robust than any in the past 50 years.
These commercial space activities have the potential to create numerous manufacturing, launch and operations jobs in Florida, and also create engineering services, hotel and restaurant jobs, and possibly even new entertainment-themed attractions. They will significantly blunt the blow of the shuttle's demise. Click here. (6/24)
Huntsman: Space Policy will Come; Right Now it’s an Affordability Issue (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is not ready to outline his policies and plans for space flight — an issue eagerly watched by thousands of people employed or formerly employed by and around Kennedy Space Center — but suggested that the first order of business is watching the budget.
When asked Thursday about the long period NASA now faces before it can have a manned space flight program again, Huntsman began by talking about first getting the country’s economic house in order. He said space will be a part of that because of the “long term return on investment” from space projects.
“We always want to be at the cutting edge of space flight. Today it’s an affordability issue. When we get around to space policy, we’ll come down here and make sure people are fully aware of what our hopes are,” he said. (6/24)
LightSquared Needs More Tests, House Panelists Say (Source: Bloomberg)
Revamping navigation equipment on commercial aircraft to accommodate LightSquared would cost billions of dollars, and halt implementation of a new U.S. air-traffic control system called NextGen that is to use GPS, said Tom Hendricks, a senior vice president with the Air Transport Association.
LightSquared should face more tests of whether it interferes with the U.S. global positioning system before getting regulatory clearance, speakers at a congressional hearing said. Lawmakers “may request” that the FCC “allow time for full, comprehensive testing” of LightSquared’s proposal to operate on different airwaves than first planned, Representative Tom Petri said. (6/24)
Appropriations Amendment Aims To Protect GPS (Source: National Journal)
The House Appropriations Committee has waded into the controversy surrounding LightSquared's efforts to deploy its wireless broadband network and concerns that it will interfere with the use of global positioning systems used by both the government and private sector.
The committee Thursday adopted an amendment to the fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill for the Federal Communications Commission that would bar the agency from allowing LightSquared or any other broadband provider to move forward with a service that would interfere with GPS services. (6/24)
Dejection Drives ISRO Official to Commit Suicide (Source: Deccan Herald)
Depression got the better of 60-year-old Chandrashekar M, who committed suicide at the ISRO Satellite Center (ISAC), where he was an accounts officer. According to his family, Chandrashekar had been depressed for a long time and was also counseled at Nimhans recently.
He was also upset that he was taken to Nimhans and had even fought with his family, a police officer quoting one of the family members told Deccan Herald. Chandrashekar came to his office at about 7.30 am and hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his chamber. (6/24)
Moon Geyser Finding Significant, UCF Scientist Says (Source: UCF)
A team of international astronomers this week reported that a salt-water reservoir is the likely source of geyser plumes observed on Enceladus – one of Saturn’s moons. Joshua Colwell, a University of Central Florida physics professor who has been studying Saturn and its surrounding moons for years, said the discovery is significant because it rules out several theories about the source. (6/24)
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