May 4 News Items

Space Pioneer Wally Schirra Dies at 84 (Source: Reuters)
U.S. space pioneer Wally Schirra, who helped lead America into the space age as one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts, has died at the age of 84. Schirra had a heart attack and died early on Thursday at a hospital near his home in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Schirra and his Mercury 7 colleagues captured the nation's imagination as they flew NASA's earliest flights in the Cold War space race with the Soviet Union. NASA promoted them as all-American heroes with the "right stuff" to go into the unexplored darkness of space aboard still-experimental rockets. Schirra, the only astronaut to fly on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights, was the third American into space when he orbited Earth six times in an October 1962 Mercury flight.

Florida House of Reps Has Moment of Silence for Schirra (Source Ft. Myers News-Press)
The Florida House stood in silence a moment Friday to honor Wally Schirra, one of the original NASA astronauts. Schirra, 84, was the third American to orbit the Earth, flying aboard the Sigma 7 Mercury orbiter. Rep. Bob Allen, R-Merritt Island, arranged the floor tribute, and recalled meeting with Schirra and other astronauts at reunions at Cape Canaveral. "He was so proud to see what Florida was doing in this new international competition," Allen said. He noted that the Legislature on Thursday, the day Schirra died, approved legislation that creates a state fund to match private investments in aerospace industries.

Alliant Techsystems Profit Up, Raises Forecast (Source: Reuters)
Alliant Techsystems' (ATK) quarterly profit rose a greater-than-expected 84 percent, spurred by strong sales of its ammunition, military technology and space equipment. ATK, which is the largest supplier of bullets to the U.S. military and also makes rocket motors for NASA, raised its profit forecasts on the expectation that sales will continue to grow across all its businesses. ATK reported a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $54.1 million, compared with $29.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Sales rose 10 percent to $1 billion, ahead of analysts' average forecast of $960 million. The company recorded higher sales in each of its three units, which focus on military technology, ammunition and rocket launch systems.

More Space Law Like Virginia? (Source: Spaceports Blog)
SpaceLawProbe blogger Jessica Londin rhetorically posed a question recently: "Which state will be the first to follow the lead of the Commonwealth of Virginia and enact its own spaceflight immunity law? California, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas?" Alex Tai, Personal Spaceflight Federation chairman and chief operating officer of Virgin Galactic, recently told The Space Foundation conference in Colorado that the industry group wants to see the Virginia prototype become law in California, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas - all states that are locations for commercial spaceports. The Virginia Spaceflight Liability and Immunity Act goes into effect on July 1, 2007 with the intent of encoraging commercial launch firms to inquire about utilization of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia.

Weldon Says Democrats To Cripple Manned Space Program (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon,(R-FL) excoriated the Democratic leadership for failing to allow a vote on an amendment he proposed that would have kept Congress from raiding NASA's budget to fund a 35% increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF). "It's increasingly clear that Democratic leaders have our manned space program in their crosshairs," said Weldon. He noted that at the hearing to introduce his proposal Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), who sits on the powerful Rules Committee, said he opposed the amendment because he was 'not convinced' of the need for human space exploration.

Weldon originally introduced the amendment after the Democrats proposed an astounding 40% percent ($2 billion) funding increase for NSF this year alone. The proposed increase was made possible earlier this year when Democrats cut a half-a-billion dollars from NASA funding. NASA and NSF are funded through the same budget account and compete for the same pot of money.

Winds Delay Ariane Launch (Source: SpaceToday.net)
Gusty high-altitude winds delayed Thursday's scheduled launch of two communications satellites on an Ariane 5. The Ariane 5ECA was scheduled to lift off Thursday evening from Kourou, French Guiana, and place into orbit the Astra 1L and Galaxy 17 commercial communications satellites for SES Astra and Intelsat, respectively. However, strong upper-level winds forced Arianespace to scrub the launch, rescheduling it for Friday evening. The launch will be the second Ariane mission the year by Arianespace.

Homemade Space Glove Wins NASA Contest (Source: Space.com)
An astronaut glove stitched together on a Maine engineer's dining room table won a cool $200,000 in a NASA competition. Peter Homer, an engineer from Southwest Harbor, Maine, won NASA's first-ever Astronaut Glove Challenge after a two-day competition. Homer's two home-built spacesuit gloves beat entries from two other teams to take home the top prize. "It took a lot of sitting at the sewing machine." A total of $250,000, split into two separate prizes, was up for grabs during NASA's Astronaut Glove Challenge, one of several Centennial Challenges offered by the space agency to spur interest and innovation in spaceflight technology. Entrants were charged with constructing spacesuit gloves capable of meeting, or exceeding, the specifications of NASA's current Phase VI glove. "If you're looking for innovative ideas, evolutionary steps and better gloves, you can't beat it," said a NASA spacesuit subsystems manager.

Repairs to Railroad Had Wrapped Up Moments Before (Source: AP)
Workers had just finished repairs on a railroad bridge and were watching as the track collapsed under a train hauling pieces of space shuttle rockets. The train was the first to go over the bridge after the repairs and testing wrapped up only moments before the crash, authorities said. Work was done on the pilings that hold the trestle up over a boggy area and on other parts of the structure. "A number" of railroad workers or contractors were on hand when the derailment occurred at a wooden trestle described as 650 feet long and 10 feet high, said Warren Flatau, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration.