California Drone Backers
Dismayed by Lost FAA Bid (Source: Long Beach Business
Journal)
California lawmakers didn't give the state's Federal Aviation
Administration drone test site bid the full press it needed, according
to this analysis, and the state needs the jobs the drone industry could
provide. "When new industries start to emerge, it's critical we grow
the manufacturing sector as a whole in California going forward," said
Gino DiCaro, spokesman for the California Manufacturers and Technology
Association. "We've got to make sure we get people to invest here and
scale up here." (1/20)
Congress Sees the
Departure of Defense Hawks (Source: The Hill)
A growing number of defense backers are departing Congress, leaving
uncertainty about the level of support the Pentagon and defense
industry may face in the future. "We're seeing a fundamental turnover,
except there is no one on the other side," said Mackenzie Eaglen, a
defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "Individually,
the members who have moved up and are about to take positions of
leadership — for example, possibly Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, and Rep. Mac
Thornberry, R-TX — are in the tradition of that older generation. But
collectively, the hemorrhaging of this group is significant." (1/19)
Israel Said to Eye
Sending Second Astronaut Spaceward (Source: Times of
Israel)
Officials from the Israel Space Agency and the Science, Technology and
Space Ministry are in negotiations with a number of countries with
space programs over the possibility of sending an Israeli astronaut on
a mission to the International Space Station. Despite progress in the
talks, several obstacles remain, which indicate that it will be years
before an Israeli can be sent into space.
For one, the US, Russia, Europe and China have a lock on all the seats
available on the scheduled flights to the ISS for the next two years.
It would also take many years of advanced training to prepare an
Israeli astronaut for a mission, and such training would come at
significant expense, the report noted. (1/21)
It's Time We Commit to
Send Humans to Mars (Source: Huffington Post)
There is growing support for human missions to Mars within the next two
decades. This has been fueled by the remarkable success of NASA
missions such as the Curiosity rover as well as a growing desire that
our nation show that we are still capable of bold and historic
endeavors. Not all are convinced of this goal, however.
In a recent meeting, I was asked, "Why such a hurry to get to Mars?
Mars isn't going away." I thought about this comment after the meeting.
I realized that humans will never travel to Mars -- or achieve any
ambitious goals -- if the world's space agencies were to embrace such
an attitude. A sense of urgency is required, perhaps more now than we
have ever required since the Apollo program in the 1960s. Without a
firm goal, humans will never land on Mars. (1/21)
SwRI Appoints New Space
Science Leader (Source: San Antonio Business Journal)
The Southwest Research Institute has named Dr. Stephen A. Fuselier the
director of the Space Science Department in the institute’s Space
Science and Engineering Division. He was previously a program director.
As the department director, he will lead a staff of 122 people who are
working on a wide range of projects in astrophysics, heliophysics,
planetary science and Earth Science. He first joined SwRI in 2011 after
working in the Space Physics Department at Lockheed Martin’s Advanced
Technology Center. (1/21)
Spaceflight Liability
Changes Advance in California Legislature (Source:
Parabolic Arc)
The California State Senate is moving forward with changes to a law
that limits the liability of spacecraft operators and their suppliers
for any injuries or deaths they cause to participants. The measure,
sponsored by State Sen. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster), would require
spacecraft operators to enter into a “reciprocal waiver of claims with
its contractors, subcontractors, customers, participants, and
contractors and subcontractors of the customers or participants” to
hold each other blameless in the event of an incident. (1/21)
NASA Finds 2013 Sustained
Long-Term Climate Warming Trend (Source: NASA)
NASA scientists say 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 for the seventh
warmest year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global
temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the
134-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005
ranking as the warmest years on record.
NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which
analyzes global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an
updated report Tuesday on temperatures around the globe in 2013. The
comparison shows how Earth continues to experience temperatures warmer
than those measured several decades ago. (1/21)
NASA, Roscosmos to Sign
New Transportation Services Contract by Summer (Source:
Interfax)
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and NASA will sign a
contract extending the period of transportation of foreign astronauts
to the International Space Station (ISS) by Russia's Soyuz spaceships
by summer, Energia Corporation President and General Designer Vitaly
Lopota said.
"NASA plans to extend its order for transportation of astronauts to the
ISS and back to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA spaceships. Negotiations may be
held in the beginning of 2014 in order to sign adjusted contracts in
the first half of the year and to start the construction of the
spaceships and the selection and training of joint crews," he said.
(1/20)
Space Florida and
Israel's Chief Scientist Seek R&D Projects
(Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida and MATIMOP (Israel’s industrial center for research and
development), on behalf of the Israeli Chief Scientist Office, issued a
joint Request For Proposals for research and development projects
sponsored by companies in both states. In October 2013, the States
of Florida and Israel formed a $2 million joint industrial
research funding program to support research, development and
commercialization of aerospace and technology projects that benefit
both States. (1/20)
Jacksonville Company
Explores Unmanned Aircraft Market (Source: Florida
times-Union)
Most of the unmanned aircraft under consideration for commercial use
now weigh less than 55 pounds, similar to recreational model unmanned
aircraft. But the potential for development could broaden to aircraft
that could be nearly as large as manned airplanes. The applications can
range from crop dusting and monitoring of agricultural land, to
observation of devastated areas after a disaster, to helping police get
a fix of the area in hostage situations, among other uses.
ASEC officials hope to become a testing and research company, one that
the aircraft manufacturers and developers will employ to refine the
systems. In the meantime, ASEC is providing in-kind services for Space
Florida, which is developing space and aeronautical commercial
interests in the state. Government-funded Space Florida is based at
Cape Canaveral.
Jax Chamber President Daniel Davis said many in the business community
are following the unmanned-aircraft developments closely. He
acknowledged that many are unaware of the potential commercial impact,
but the unknowns make the drone development attractive. (1/19)
The Year Ahead for NASA’s
Commercial Crew Partners (Source: Parabolic Arc)
With just over seven months to go, NASA’s commercial crew partners are
racing to complete 14 remaining milestones in this phase of the
competition to launch Americans into orbit on U.S.-built spacecraft.
The coming months will see SpaceX conduct to abort tests of its Dragon
spacecraft and Sierra Nevada conduct at least one additional
drop test of its Dream Chaser shuttle. Boeing will conduct three
critical design reviews and a comprehensive safety review of its
CST-100 spacecraft. (1/20)
Virgin Galactic Space
Tourists Could be Grounded by FAA (Source: CBC)
Nearly 700 people have already paid $250,000 for a ticket to ride
Virgin Galactic's commercial spaceship, and the company is hoping this
is the year that those space flights finally take off. One potential
glitch: the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has not granted Virgin
Galactic a commercial operator's licence. What’s more, the FAA has not
laid out safety rules like those for airlines and their planes, and
there are no plans to do so until at least October 2015.
"We have to have an operator's licence to take people into space, and
it's obviously something that we need to deal with," says Stephen
Attenborough, the company's commercial director. Known as a Reusable
Launch Vehicle Mission Licence, this little document is the final piece
of the commercial space travel puzzle that Virgin Galactic began
assembling in 2004. Without it, only test-flight personnel like former
astronauts and military pilots can fly aboard SpaceShipTwo, the most
recent evolution of the company's supersonic craft. (1/20)
The Final Frontier’s
Financial Limits (Source: New York Times)
A decade after swinging into orbit around Saturn, NASA’s venerable
Cassini spacecraft is still working, well beyond the four years of
science the space agency had hoped to get. But the spacecraft is
running low on maneuvering fuel, and its managers want to end with a
scientific bang — an ambitious agenda that includes 22 orbits through a
gap between the planet and its innermost ring before sending the craft
on a death plunge into Saturn in 2017.
For several months, however, scientists have worried that NASA,
financially squeezed like the rest of the federal government, could
terminate the mission sooner. This spring, agency officials, as they do
every two years, will conduct a review of the spacecraft that have
outlived their original missions. For the 2015 fiscal year, which
begins Oct. 1, NASA faces particularly tough choices. Click here.
(1/20)
NASA Plans Renewal of
Wallops Commercial Spaceport Contract (Source: NASA)
NASA/GSFC intends to award a 5-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite
Quantity (IDIQ) task order contract to the Virginia Commercial Space
Flight Authority (VCSFA) for launch site services supporting missions
conducted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Wallops Flight
Facility (WFF). VCSFA, under the commercial name of Mid-Atlantic
Regional Spaceport (MARS), operates a commercial spaceport at the only
NASA-owned launch range located at WFF through the 30-year Reimbursable
Space Act Agreement, which was signed on February 18, 1997.
VCSFA currently owns two orbital launch pads on the NASA WFF Launch
Range that are currently suitable for launching orbital payloads and
supporting equipment and has the only FAA license to operate a launch
site at WFF to conduct government and commercial launches. VCSFA
maintains significant specialized technical knowledge related to
national launch system designs and processes; and since the two launch
pads are owned and operated by VCSFA, NASA will not have the ability to
use either of those two launch pads for NASA-sponsored launches beyond
May 3, 2014, the expiration of current contract. (1/20)
Light From Ancient Quasar
Reveals Intergalactic Web (Source: Nature)
Astronomers have discovered the largest known gas cloud in the
Universe. The mammoth nebula may be the first imaged filament of a
spidery arrangement of galaxies, gas and dark matter that traces the
large-scale structure of the cosmos. The team used a brilliant quasar,
seen as it appeared when the Universe was less than 3 billion years
old, to illuminate the faint gas in the beacon’s neighbourhood.
The flood of light from the quasar (one of a class of intensely bright
galaxy cores, thought to be black holes going through a spurt of
growth) prompts hydrogen atoms in the gas to emit a characteristic
wavelength of ultraviolet radiation. As the Universe expands, the
radiation subsequently stretches into longer wavelengths, becoming
visible light. (1/19)
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