NewSpace Companies Visit Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach Campus (Source: SPACErePORT)
Officials from the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center will visit Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Daytona Beach campus this week to discuss the continuation and expansion of joint research programs. Next week, XCOR Aerospace will visit the campus to discuss engineering design projects that would benefit from the company's Lynx vehicle development. (10/28)
Why Shiloh Now? (Source:
SPACErePORT)
Back in 1989, commercial spaceflight was new and the Air Force and NASA
were skeptical of the state's plans to establish a spaceport authority.
Today, commercial space is vital to NASA and Air Force plans, and they
view the state as a key partner in making it successful. If SpaceX
establishes a lower-cost alternative in Texas, Hawaii or Georgia, like
Orbital hopes to do in Virginia, we'll ultimately see some government
missions leaving Florida for those other sites, and the Cape might be
relegated to supporting fewer and fewer launches with per-launch costs
spiraling upward.
As with the NASA plan in 2008, I think the Shiloh concept will raise
questions about why we couldn't instead use a retired Space Shuttle
launch pad, or one of the old Air Force pads that already represent a
public investment of billions of dollars. If nothing else, the coming
Shiloh debate should force the Air Force and NASA to ask themselves:
"Yeah, why are our existing facilities not competitive for this kind of
activity?"
As far as public opposition goes, I think Shiloh might fare better than
the further-south sites NASA considered in 2008. The Shuttle wasn't yet
retired in 2008, so the community still hadn't felt the full economic
impacts, and many were hopeful that the Shuttle program would be
extended. Today they might put a little more weight on the economic
considerations. (10/28)
Webb-McNamara: At the Heart of the
Shiloh Debate (Source: SPACErePORT)
Back in 1963, NASA Administrator James Webb and Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara reached an agreement that put the Air Force in charge
of ensuring public safety for all launches from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. After some initial confusion,
another agreement was reached a few months later to confirm NASA's
responsibility for ground safety on KSC property. For the following 50
years, the Air Force has maintained and evolved the rules for flight
safety at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.
Although go/no-go authority has rested with the Range Commander, the
command structure that has managed the Range's rules and
requlations--and much of its equipment--has been vested in other Air
Force and DOD organizations, including Air Force Space Command, the Air
Force Space & Missile Center, a multi-service Range Commanders
Council, and a Major Range and Test Facility Base (MRTFB) organization.
With so many cooks in the Eastern Range kitchen, NASA's new 21st
Century Launch Complex program, with appropriated funding for
commercial-launch upgrades at the Cape, has encountered difficulty in
trying to improve Eastern Range systems.
If NASA were able to manage flight safety for missions from KSC launch
pads--or if NASA could rely on the FAA to certify commercial launch
safety at KSC, as would happen at Shiloh--perhaps LC-39 would become
much more attractive as an alternative to Shiloh. At Shiloh, Space
Florida hopes for an outright deed transfer from NASA, putting the
property outside the purview of Webb-McNamara. It makes me wonder which
would be easier, transferring 150 acres of NASA property to Florida, or
ending the half-century old Webb-McNamara agreement. (10/28)
Spaceport Eyes Volusia Refuge Site
(Source: Daytona Beach News Journal)
Frank DiBello would like to rocket Central Florida back to the lead in
the worldwide space race, but first the Space Florida president must
convince NASA to give up 150 acres of the 140,000 acres it owns in
Volusia and Brevard counties for a commercial spaceport. The spaceport
would benefit from a diverse local talent pool, including thousands who
lost their jobs with the end of the space shuttle program, and
educational institutions such as Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
It also could attract other lucrative space-related manufacturers and
businesses, DiBello said, such as those involved in the assembly and
manufacture of payloads being transported to space. A [new
vertical-launch] commercial spaceport is going to be developed
somewhere in the U.S., he said. "If we don't get this site, it will go
somewhere else," he said. Dibello met with a small group of local
officials on Wednesday, including Kent Sharples, president of the CEO
Business Alliance.
"It's an exciting concept," Sharples said Friday. A strategically
located, public/private facility could bring back space industry jobs
lost over the past several years, he said. But first, the proposal has
to clear bureaucratic and public relations hurdles, possibly even an
act of Congress to get the land released from NASA ownership and Refuge
management. At least twice before, supporters of a commercial spaceport
have tried without success to get land from NASA. Click here.
(10/28)
Launch-Pad Talk Focuses on Long-Gone
Town (Source: Florida Today)
The Shiloh spaceport is not a sure thing: environmental concerns doomed
two previous proposals to develop within the wildlife refuge, and some
are bracing for another fight. The new state proposal hopes to succeed
where the two before it failed. In 2008 (before the Shuttle retired),
area residents packed public hearings to pan a NASA feasibility study
that suggested two nearby locations for a multi-user launch complex.
Less well-remembered is a state-funded study that identified Shiloh as
a finalist for a commercial spaceport in 1989, just as the state was
establishing the authority that evolved into Space Florida. The
governor and house speaker immediately yanked it from consideration,
with the speaker calling the study sloppy. Some environmentalists and
refuge supporters viewed the latest proposal just as skeptically.
But Space Florida and some who lined up against NASA in 2008 say the
current situation is completely different and applies lessons learned
from the past. Shiloh is far north of the NASA site that upset so many
four years ago, and therefore is expected to have less impact on access
to popular recreation areas. The state is now proposing to develop a
fraction of the 12,000 acres it envisioned back in 1989. Click here.
(10/28)
Massive Planets Might Escape Stellar
Engulfment Largely Undiminished (Source: Scientific American)
Having your planet swallowed by a star is no fun. But some planets
might be able to run the astrophysical gauntlet and make it through
more or less intact. When a star comparable to or somewhat larger than
the sun enters advanced age, it swells up into a red giant, expanding
far beyond its original radius. In the process, the star’s ballooning
atmosphere will consume any nearby planets—-such is the fate awaiting
the planets of the inner solar system, Earth most likely included.
Mercury, Venus and Earth are all too small to endure engulfment, and
will quickly spiral in toward the sun due to drag forces from the
surrounding stellar atmosphere. Larger planets or substellar objects
called brown dwarfs, however, can actually dispel the star’s bloated
exterior and survive. But they may emerge somewhat worse for wear. The
density of a star’s expanded atmosphere can strip away the outer layers
of an orbiting planet, so what comes out may be very different from
what went in. (10/24)
Energomash Turns a Profit
(Source Parabolic Arc)
“We’re in the black, and we have really progressed!” The Executive
Director of NPO Energomash, V.L. Solntsev, said this at a general
meeting at which a summary report on the results of two years of work.
He thanked the staff for the work and for their faith in the success of
the company initiated change. The report included all activities of
Energomash, including production of the RD-191 engine and tests of the
RD-193. Work is being done to improve the energy efficiency of engines
and to develop the new fuel acetyl.
This year, as in 2011, the plant will produce 17 engines: 7 RD-171Ms, 4
RD-180s, and 6 RD-191s. The number of tests increased from 16 in 2010
to a planned 40 in 2012. Energomash is a leading developer of rocket
engine in the world, V.L. Solntsev said. (10/28)
Private SpaceX Capsule Lands After
Historic Mission to Space Station (Source: Space.com)
NASA's first commercial cargo flight ended with a splash on Oct. 28,
when the SpaceX Dragon capsule landed after a landmark mission to the
International Space Station. The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built
by the U.S. company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), splashed
down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California at
3:22 p.m. EDT, ending a three-week visit to the orbiting laboratory.
Dragon began its descent with a de-orbit burn at 2:28 p.m. EDT, after
departing the station at 9:29 a.m. EDT as both spacecraft sailed 255
miles above Burma. The station's crew used the outpost's robotic arm to
release the spacecraft. The Dragon capsule is returning hundreds of
astronaut blood and urine samples amid the 1,673 pounds of experiments
and gear loaded on board. Some of those samples have been waiting for
more than a year. (10/28)
New Mexico Spaceport Relying On
Legislation (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
Do we debate the value of the Albuquerque Sunport? Or the Big I? Or the
ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach? Or the rail hubs of Kansas City and
Chicago? They are all important landmarks – yet as I talk to my fellow
New Mexicans I sense a real misunderstanding of the two emerging ports
or gateways in our great state. For over 30 years, the state of New
Mexico has been carefully planning and constructing these world-class
ports. Of course, I am referring to Spaceport America and the Santa
Teresa Port of Entry.
In January 2013, as part of the next 60-day Legislative session, our
elected leaders will consider the informed consent legislation for a
second time. Our $209 million investment, as well as surrounding
counties’ commitment to increase their gross receipts tax to support
the Spaceport, depends on its support and passage. If our Spaceport
Authority has the same tools as states like Texas, Florida, Virginia
and Colorado, then it can effectively recruit tenants to New Mexico. If
not, we run the risk of creating a permanent barrier to our promising
gateway to space.
This would be a financial calamity of the highest order and can easily
be avoided by every concerned citizen contacting their state
representatives and requesting that the informed consent legislation be
passed. Passage of this legislation does not “cost” taxpayers anything.
It requires that individuals who venture into space acknowledge the
risks and accept them as part of an exciting and unique experience.
(10/28)
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