June 1 News Items

PlanetSpace Evaluating Two Launch Sites (Source: Cape Breton Post)
PlanetSpace will pick the site for its orbital launch pad by the end of July, says the company chairman. “Everything is going really well with our discussions with the province of Nova Scotia,” said Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria. “We’ve settled on two launch sites and we’re evaluating them.” Kathuria declined to identify where the sites are but did confirm both are located on the island. The company's sub-orbital manufacturing facilities are running in Ohio and it has nearly completed a full-scale engineering mock-up of its rocket ship, the Silver Dart.

As soon as the location is finalized, PlanetSpace will open an office here within 60 days, he said. “We’ll be spending a lot of time between Cape Breton and Chicago,” he said. The proposed site will be similar to the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, he continued. “If you actually look at Kodiak launch sites and see launches, you probably can’t tell if it’s Cape Breton or Alaska.” In an economic impact document prepared for the Alaska centre, it’s reported the complex produces 45 direct and 72 indirect jobs in Kodiak. Its employees are among the highest paid workers in the community, with average monthly earnings of $5,120.

Florida SBIR/STTR Program Could Benefit Aerospace Startups (Source: ERAU)
Enterprise Florida's SBIR/STTR “Phase 0” Pilot Program is being implemented to help Florida companies increase their chances of submitting a successful Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) proposal. The pilot project, which will provide small grants to companies pursuing SBIR or STTR Phase 1 grants, will continue until available funds are depleted – it is anticipated that funding will be available at least through December 2007. Applications are accepted on a first-come-first served basis. Visit http://www.eflorida.com/phase0/ for information.

Delta II Suffers Pad Problem - Launch May be Delayed (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
United Launch Alliance engineers at the Cape Canaveral Spacecport have been forced to cease processing of the Delta II launch vehicle, which is set to carry NASA's Dawn spacecraft from Launch Complex-17B. Mating of the solid rocket motors is likely to be delayed by one week, after the crane - used to hoist the solids into place along the outside of the Delta II's first stage - broke down with a bushing problem.

100th Long March Rocket Soars from China with TV Satellite (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
A television broadcasting satellite to cover Southeast Asia was launched Thursday on the 100th flight of China's venerable Long March rocket family. The Sinosat 3 spacecraft used a Long March 3A rocket for the 24-minute trip to a temporary transfer orbit. The 172-foot-tall booster launched from the Xichang spaceport. The mission marked the 100th flight of China's Long March rocket, which launched the nation's first satellite in 1970. Since 1996, variants of the launcher have completed 58 consecutive successful missions.

Major Distraction: NASA is Getting Deeper in a Hole with Ddiscredited Inspector (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The Bush administration foolishly stood by NASA's in-house watchdog after a federal probe concluded that he had compromised his independence and mistreated his staff. Now, like a black hole, the controversy created by Inspector General Robert Cobb is pulling in other top officials at the space agency. As members of Congress were told last week, Michael Griffin convened a meeting with Mr. Cobb and his staff after the probe became public to rebut its conclusions. Some who attended said Mr. Griffin told the staff not to conduct technical investigations, and to limit their probes into waste, fraud and abuse to cases involving more than $1 billion. Neither instruction makes much sense; the office employs engineers and other experts capable of technical investigations, and $1 billion is far too high a threshold for a cash-starved agency such as NASA.

A NASA spokesman disputed that account of the meeting, saying Mr. Griffin only responded to a question about what he considered the most beneficial use of the staff's efforts. He stressed that the office was free to investigate what it chose, the spokesman said. No matter which account is more accurate, Mr. Griffin had no business giving instructions or even his opinion on priorities for the inspector general's office to its staff. The law calls for those offices to operate independently, without any direction from agency leaders.

DVD recordings of the meeting would have shown just what Mr. Griffin said -- and whether anything else improper took place -- but his chief of staff gathered them up afterward. He turned them over to NASA's top lawyer, Michael Wholley, who bluntly admitted to "breaking them in pieces and throwing them in the trash." The House subcommittee's Democratic chairman and top Republican were so outraged that they agreed to ask the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. Criminal or not, no investigation is needed to conclude that destroying the records of the meeting was dead wrong. It was a slap at the members of Congress who oversee NASA and the taxpayers who pay the agency's bills. Yet Mr. Griffin is standing by Mr. Wholley, too.

Scares in Space (Source: MSNBC)
Did you hear the one about the astronaut who threw up in his spacesuit? Or about the cosmonaut who had to get medical treatment in space after walking into a floating glob of antifreeze? Or the astronaut who became so despondent after his orbital experiment failed that his colleagues feared he would blow the hatch on the space shuttle? Former NASA flight surgeon Jon Clark has heard them all, and he says the adverse experiences from nearly a half-century of spaceflight hold lessons for a new generation of private-sector space fliers. Visit http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/05/31/210084.aspxto view the article.