May 23 News Items

DOD Stands Up Joint Space Office in New Mexico (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
The Department of Defense stood up the joint service Operationally Responsive Space Office in a ceremony May 21 at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. The ORS Office will be responsible for integrating joint ORS capabilities and for applying ORS resources to the development, acquisition and demonstration of capabilities to meet specific responsive space needs as established by global combatant command joint force commanders and users.

Airborne Systems Selected for SpaceX Parachutes (Source: PR Newswire)
Airborne Systems, which has combined the world's leading parachute brands specializing in aerial delivery, rescue and survival equipment, and engineering services announced that its Space and Recovery Systems Engineering team (formerly Irvin Aerospace) has been selected to provide Recovery Systems for Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s (SpaceX) Falcon 9/Dragon system. These systems will support government and commercial launch operations and the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

The Airborne Systems team will design and manufacture parachutes and related equipment to recover both the First and Second Stages of the Falcon 9 Rocket and the Dragon Capsule. The capsule will become a transportation vehicle to deliver cargo to and return equipment from the International Space Station. In addition to carrying cargo, it is also being designed to transport crew members to the ISS in the future.

NASA KSC Develops 'Smart' Weather Balloons for Launch Sites (Source: New Scientist)
NASA is developing small, cheap "smart balloons" to monitor weather conditions around rocket pads on launch days. NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has fast-tracked a team from the technology company ENSCO, based in Melbourne, Florida, US, to build the balloons using technology developed for smart dust – tiny devices capable of sensing their environment and transmitting the data home. The solar-powered balloons carry temperature, pressure, humidity and GPS sensors. They are also equipped with transmitters that can work together as a mesh network or, if the balloons drift too far apart, send data back via satellite links. The balloons, which are filled with helium, weigh only 130 grams and are the size of a beach ball. They have been tested on the Florida coast over the last few months.

The Planet NASA Needs to Explore (Source: Washington Post)
Decades ago, a shift in NASA priorities sidelined progress in human space exploration. As momentum gathers to reinvigorate human space missions to the moon and Mars, we risk hurting ourselves, and Earth, in the long run. Our planet -- not the moon or Mars -- is under significant threat from the consequences of rapid climate change. Yet the changing NASA priorities will threaten exploration here at home. NASA not only launches shuttles and builds space stations, it also builds and operates our nation's satellites that observe and monitor the Earth. These satellites collect crucial global data on winds, ice and oceans. They help us forecast hurricanes, track the loss of Arctic sea ice and the rise of sea levels, and understand and prepare for climate changes.

NASA's budget for science missions has declined 30 percent in the past six years, and that trend is expected to continue. As more dollars are reallocated to prepare for missions back to the moon and Mars, sophisticated new satellites to observe the Earth will be delayed, harming Earth sciences. Click here to view the article.