Arianespace to Sign Contract For Rockets Valued at $3.5 Billion (Source: Wall Street Journal)
French rocket operator Arianespace has entered into an agreement with an estimated value of more than $3.5 billion to buy 35 launchers from its long-established prime contractor, the Astrium space unit of European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. (EADS). Announced during the closing weekend of the international air show in Le Bourget, the five-year agreement underscores that Arianespace plans to continue ramping up its tempo launching heavy-lift Ariane 5 rockets from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Kennedy Space Center Now 'Storm Ready' (Source: CFNews13.com)
Kennedy Space Center has been declared "storm ready" by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service. KSC is the first government site in the state to earn the certification. The StormReady program is designed to reduce the number of injuries and property damage from severe storms. "You have the ability to provide warning to residents or workers or employees. You have the ability to educate them in terms of severe weather -- the impacts of severe weather -- and you have the facilities where people can ride out severe weather events," said Bob Lay. One thing KSC cannot protect is a space shuttle on a launch pad. Earlier this year, hail damaged the external fuel tank, which delayed launches. NASA said they have no way to make the shuttle more storm ready [aside from returning it to the VAB].
Boeing Orbital Express Achieves Another First (Source: Boeing)
Boeing announced that the Orbital Express system, a program to validate spacecraft servicing capability led by DARPA, has performed a fully-autonomous "fly-around and capture" of its NextSat client spacecraft, marking another industry first for the innovative program. During the five-hour test on June 16, Boeing's Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft used its onboard cameras and advanced video guidance system to separate from, circle and re-mate with the Ball Aerospace NextSat client spacecraft. The test primarily used passive sensors with no active exchange of relative navigation information or involvement by ground controllers.
Space Station's Lack of Back-Up Computers is Questioned (Source: New Scientist)
Even the all-purpose keyboard reboot command Ctrl-Alt-Delete would have failed to fix this computer glitch. Last week, six of the International Space Station's computers crashed at once, raising questions about the lack of any independent back-up. The German-made computers control the station's orientation and oxygen supply. By Sunday the computers were running again, though only thanks to some improvised rewiring. They will be replaced in July, but NASA engineers are investigating whether the ISS might also need back-up processors and software, similar to the space shuttle's last-resort computer, which runs its own separate programming. Meanwhile, European Space Agency officials are examining two computers of the same type that crashed, which are part of the agency's Columbus lab module, due to be flown up to the ISS later this year.
One Down, Three More Shuttle Missions To Go in 2007 (Source: USA Today)
The safe landing of space shuttle Atlantis paves the way for NASA to stick to an ambitious schedule for building the International Space Station this year. NASA plans three more shuttle missions in the remaining six months of 2007, which will require a flight rate that the agency hasn't achieved since 2002. Each flight is a complex and jam-packed mission to add to the station, which is just over halfway done. "If we don't get one of those gotchas, I feel pretty good about three more launches this year," said Michael Leinbach, shuttle launch director.
Spaceport America: We must Have Counties’ Support (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
State legislators were reassured Friday that it was in the best interest of two southern New Mexico counties to hike their gross receipts tax to help fund Spaceport America in southern Sierra County. The issue was raised by Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, a member of the Legislative Finance Committee. Spaceport officials intend to partially pay for the project with proceeds from gross receipts increases in three counties — Doña Ana, Otero and Sierra — totaling about $58 million. Voters in Doña Ana County narrowly passed its tax hike in April. Spaceport officials said at the time it would have been impossible to go forward with the project without support from Doña Ana County, which will account for about $49 million of the $58 million. Otero and Sierra have yet to set a date for their referendums. "As I recall, the issue was if this resolution here doesn't pass then we don't have a spaceport," Adair said, referring to the April election. "If it does pass, then we're good to go... What's the incentive for Otero and Sierra counties?"
Satellite Destruction Using Google Earth And Orbitron (Source: Information Week)
Researchers have used off-the-shelf software as part of an experiment to demonstrate the vulnerability of critical space infrastructure. After a brief stop by Wikipedia to brush up on China's destruction of its Feng Yun 1C weather satellite in January, you download Sebastian Stoff's Orbitron satellite tracking software and Google Earth, to make your attack easier to visualize. You pick a target. Why not Feng Yun 1D, since the Chinese don't appear to care much for their weather satellites? You plot the satellite's position ten minutes hence using your computer and you feed the predicted latitude, longitude, and altitude to your hidden launch pad control center. Using literature that's been available since the 1960s, you -- or your launch control staff, if you've got the requisite payroll of a Bond villain or an international terrorist cabal -- compute the amount of fuel needed to get your one-stage rocket and its warhead to the satellite's future position.
You plot a "solution" or flight plan that takes into account the liftoff phase, the controlled orbit insertion phase, and the ballistic fall onto the target. You double check your math, because you've got a small chunk of change invested in this scheme. Lacking the standard red launch button, you settle for clicking the "Destroy Satellite" dialog box (you had to code this yourself). Your computer dutifully asks for confirmation: "Are you sure you want to Destroy Satellite? This operation cannot be undone ." This, more or less, is what Adrian Gheorghe, Professor of Systems Engineering at Old Dominion University Norfolk, Virginia, and Dan Vamanu, a Senior Researcher at the National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering in Bucharest, Romania, did as an experiment to demonstrate the vulnerability of critical space infrastructure.
ESA and CNES Sign Assistance Contracts for Ariane (Source: ESA)
ESA and the French National Space Agency (Centre National d'Études Spatiales – CNES) signed two contracts covering the provision of assistance to ESA by CNES for parts of the Ariane launcher program. A reorganization of the European launcher sector establishes "Astrium Space Transportation" as the sole Prime Contractor for both development and production of Ariane launch vehicles. Meanwhile, there will be direct ESA management of all new ESA-funded Ariane programs while making use of the existing knowledge and experience within CNES. Prior to this change, ESA delegated the management of the Ariane Program to CNES.
Moon Jobs May Crater (Source: Rutgers University)
Think your job is tough? In the not-too-distant future, some jobs will challenge workers placed far, far away from it all. On the moon, in fact. According to an associate professor at Rutgers, the lunar settlements of tomorrow – or, for that matter, the space stations of today – carry long-term implications for the mental health of employees working in isolation for extended periods. Depression and anxiety will reach new levels among those employees, creating mental and cardiovascular health problems as well as a sharp decline in productivity. Existing research already finds that workers in earthbound, quasi-isolated work environments, such as remote Australian mining towns or Antarctic stations, experience higher levels of depression. Just imagine what might happen if those workers were placed in the extreme isolation of a lunar environment, where interaction with their coworkers may determine their very survival.
Russian Space Agency Signs Contracts for Soyuz Launches from Kourou (Source: Roscosmos)
Roscosmos has signed a contract for four launches of European satellites from Kourou (French Guiana). The first launch is scheduled for 2009.
Air Force Orders Additional SBIRS Satellites (Source: Launchspace)
The Space Based Infrared Systems (SBIRS) Program Office intends to issue a contract for the production of one additional SBIRS Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite (GEO 3) and two additional Highly Elliptical Orbit payloads (HEO 3 and 4), according to Air Force documents released Thursday. The SBIRS program office anticipates releasing the sole source Request For Proposal next month to Lockheed Martin with a contract award in January 2008. In related news, the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a $6.4 million contract modification to continue work on the Alternative Infrared Satellite System (AIRSS) program.
From Special Ed To NASA (Source: Philadelphia Inquirer)
On the JSC door labeled "Trajectory Operations and Planning" is the name of Jarmaine Ollivierre. The talk inside is of vector propagation - predicting with pinpoint accuracy where the International Space Station will be in the next minute, the next day, the next week as it rounds Earth at five miles per second. Anticipating the precise course so it can be tweaked to avert a big bang isn't easy, Ollivierre said. For a young aerospace engineer, it's heaven. Ollivierre, 31, is one of Say Yes to Education's stellar successes: the former special education student at Belmont Elementary now holds a bachelor's in aeronautical engineering and another in physics from Tuskegee University, and a master's in technical management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Group Battles for Florida's Place in Space (Source: Florida Today)
The clock is counting down to the mothballing of the space shuttle in 2010, but Florida's efforts to save 5,000 Kennedy Space Center jobs have been on hold. Space Florida, the quasi-governmental agency in charge of recruiting new aerospace business, hadn't convened a board meeting since January while it waited for Gov. Charlie Crist to appoint new members, which he did Friday. "We don't want to rush these appointments," Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, Crist's point man on space, said Thursday. "We're being deliberative."
Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said Florida's space recruitment efforts have been so frustratingly slow and bureaucratic, it might be a good thing that the board was unable to meet. "We're in an economic war with these other states and we're yielding to them," he said. Space Coast lawmaker Bob Allen fought Gov. Jeb Bush's reorganization of space recruiting efforts that resulted in the creation of Space Florida, but remains on the board. He said Florida is not being aggressive enough, and says the 2006 Florida Space Act requires Space Florida to conduct too many studies while states like Alabama, Colorado and California move ahead with aggressive recruiting. "I don't need another study to tell me that it's tough doing business with the Air Force and the Department of Defense," he said.
In an interview from the Paris Air Show, Space Florida President Steve Kohler insisted the lack of a board quorum before Friday hadn't stopped his recruiting efforts. Kohler said he was still able to have "progressive" meetings with industry representatives at the prestigious trade show, but he didn't want to tip off competitors by giving any details. "We're not being held back, we're moving forward," he said. Space Florida recently announced a deal for SpaceX of El Segundo, Calif., to launch Falcon 9 rockets from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Kohler is also working to hammer out an agreement with NASA to harness the massive Shuttle Landing Facility for commercial use. Kohler said he's not giving up on Richard Branson, and that the Shuttle Landing Facility's proximity to Disney World and other attractions still makes it a viable option for space tourism.
Albuquerque Business to Offer Drinks from Space (Source: Albuquerque Tribune)
It came from outer space. Tiny microorganisms that flew through space and survived harsh temperature fluctuations and microgravity could soon be invading your beer 'fridge. Rich Glover, president of Microgravity Enterprises of Albuquerque, shot the little creatures - OK, they're yeast cells - 75 miles into the sky on a rocket at the New Mexico SpacePort in April. The yeast-ronauts' mission? To make it home alive so they can ferment sugar in the first commercial "space beer." Microgravity Enterprises' space drinks will be available to the public starting in July. Space 2 O, an electrolyte water, is set for release July 1. Antimatter, an energy drink, is set for release July 15. And Comet Tail Ale, a space beer, should be available in late July or early August.
By Edward Ellegood
LinkedIn Group
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