May 21 News Items

BAE Team Pursues Ares Avionics Contract (Source: Manufactung News)
BAE Systems' onslaught on the US defense market is in full flood as it heads an industry team in pursuit of a contract to support NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center with the design, development and production of Instrument Unit Avionics (IUA) on the new Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle. The team, lead by BAE Systems as prime contractor, includes United Space Alliance, General Dynamics, Harris Corporation, Goodrich Corporation, Wyle Laboratories, Arcata Associates. Inc, Barrios Technology and AURA Instrumentation.

Aerospace Companies Seek Young Recruits (Source: AP)
Justin Wong, an aerospace engineering student from MIT, was schmoozing on Facebook.com last fall when he came across a sleek Boeing job ad. Wong, who had just interned at the aerospace company, saw the banner on the popular social networking site as a "two-way street" -- a defense behemoth reaching out to today's youth in their virtual playground. "My first impression was that Boeing is getting with the times," said the 21-year-old senior, who will work at Boeing's satellite division after graduation. "It shows the company is making an effort to talk to us on our level."

It's no secret the U.S. aerospace industry is rapidly graying: The average age of an aerospace worker was 45 in 2005. By next year, roughly one out of four will be eligible to retire. Faced with a looming brain drain, companies are cooking up creative ways to lure and keep talent from chatting with students online to fast-tracking young workers to be future leaders. Industry analysts say there's still time to stave off a shortage -- if the effort begins now.

1,000 Pounds Cut from Orion CEV (Source: Aerospace Daily)
NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) will lose about 1,000 pounds of the mass it carries to orbit with a newly adopted redesign of the service module that flies just aft of the pressurized crew capsule. Orion also may save some more weight from an ongoing redesign of the boost protective cover that shelters the capsule during its ascent through the lower atmosphere. Mass to orbit continues to be a problem with the Orion design as it matures. In the latest configuration - designated 606 by prime contractor Lockheed Martin - three panels on the outside of the service module are jettisoned shortly after the upper-stage engine on the Ares I launch vehicle ignites, much like the fairing surrounding a satellite on an expendable rocket.

In earlier Orion configurations, designated 604 and 605, the solid sides of the service module carried structural loads from the spacecraft adaptor at the top of the Ares I to the pressurized crew capsule. In configuration 606 most of those loads are moved inside the encapsulated service module (ESM) onto an internal arrangement of struts called the Service Module/Crew Launch Vehicle Truss Adaptor that will support the capsule. The truss adaptor is dropped after main engine cutoff, and Orion proceeds to orbit with a service module much smaller in diameter than in the earlier configurations. It is shrouded not by an aluminum skin as in the earlier versions, but by thermal-control radiators that may wind up being made of composite materials to save more weight.

Europe's Mission to Mars Hangs in Balance (Source: The Register)
Top boffins from the European Space Agency (ESA) are to meet in Paris this week to vote on plans for a European mission to Mars. Delegates will be asked to choose between two options: the original plan, and a scaled up, more expensive mission that would free the mission from reliance on the U.S. for communications. The need for an independent communications system was underlined by the demise of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which was died last year. But sending communications gear along with the original ExoMars mission means a heavier spacecraft, which in turn means a bigger rocket, a more complex landing system, and that is where the costs start to pile up.

China Confirms Lunar Mission Plans (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Chinese officials confirmed that the country will launch its first lunar orbiter mission by the end of this year. The Chang'e 1 lunar orbiter will likely be launched in the second half of 2007. Earlier reports had indicated that the launch would take place in September. The orbiter, China's first mission beyond Earth orbit, will carry a suite of instruments to study the lunar surface. The mission is the first in a three-phase lunar exploration effort that will also include a lunar lander/rover and a sample return mission.

Launch Delayed of Russian-Ukrainian Rocket with US Satellite (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
The launch of a privately funded US space module, Genesis II, has been delayed by a month for testing, the second such delay for it. Genesis II was scheduled for launch in Russia by a civilian Dnepr rocket, based on a modified intercontinental ballistic missile. But a Dnepr launch vehicle crashed shortly after lift-off last year. "The launch will take place towards the end of June near Yasny in Orenburg region (in the Urals)," said a spokesman for Kosmotras, a joint venture by Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Russia's Energia Posts 220% Rise in 2006 Net Profit (Source: RIA Novosti)
Energia, a Russian rocket and space company, said its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) grew 220% year-on-year in 2006 to 509.5 million rubles (about $20 million). Company officials attributed the higher figure to a dynamic increase in revenue from commercial services in 2006. Sales grew 38% in the reporting period to 8.69 billion rubles (about $337 million) while pre-tax profit was up 160% to more than 789 million rubles (about $31 million), Energia said.

European Team Selected for Big UAE Satellite Contract (Source: Space News)
Astrium and Thales Alenia Space have been selected to build a $1.36 billion civil-military satellite telecommunications system for Mubadala Development Co. of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), besting a competing offer by Boeing in what is likely to be one of the year’s biggest satellite procurements.