June 25 News Items

Sen. Martinez Discussing Future Of Space Program Monday (Source: CFL13.com)
As NASA continues making preparations to bring Atlantis back to Central Florida from California, Florida U.S. Senator Mel Martinez is making preparations to talk about the future of the space program. Martinez will be at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday. He plans on meeting with NASA leaders about funding for the space agency. As it stands now, the shuttle is due to retire in 2010 and be replaced by new space vehicles. But budget cuts at NASA have some concerned those projects would have to be delayed. Martinez says he wants to find ways to make sure that doesn't happen.

Canada Needs a New Space Policy (Source: CDFAI)
In order to meet Canada's national security challenges in the 21st century, the government must develop and implement a truly independent national space policy and strategy and devote much greater attention and resources to space, says a new study released by the Canadian Defense & Foreign Affairs Institute (CDFAI). "The economic and military significance of space services has grown dramatically over the last decade. Canadian policy remains relatively unchanged. Unless the government moves forward, Canada will have little influence on the manner in which existing and emerging crucial space security issues are managed."

The report details the evolution, current state and future direction of global space thinking, investment and activities and Canada's place therein. Space, or more accurately the hundreds of satellites on orbit providing a range of crucial services, has become part of the world's and Canada's critical economic infrastructure. It has also become a vital enabler of modern military, defence and security operations. In the future, space will become an independent environment of global competition and conflict. Canada's national security will require the nation to become a major contributor to the protection and defence of this critical infrastructure.

Small Business Organization Concerned About NASA Contracting (Source: ASBL)
A new Small Business Administration (SBA) policy set to take effect on Jun. 30 will allow NASA to continue to count contracts to Fortune 1000 firms towards their federally mandated 23 percent small business contracting goal. In 2006 NASA lost a federal lawsuit and was forced to disclose that it had included billions of dollars in contracts to many of the nation's largest defense and aerospace firms towards their small business contracting goal. Despite this finding, the new SBA policy will allow NASA to continue including awards to firms such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin in their small business contracting statistics until the year 2012.

The SBA was previously forced to shelve a grandfathering policy allowing this federal contracting practice, after receiving more than 6000 objections to the proposed policy. New SBA Administrator Steven Preston resurrected the unpopular grandfathering policy shortly after he was appointed to office, renaming it "five-year re-certification." The Senate is expected to propose legislation to remove Fortune 1000 firms and all large businesses from federal small business contracting programs before the end of 2007.

NASA Aims to Move Up Endeavour Launch (Source: Florida Today)
NASA is aiming to move up the planned launch of shuttle Endeavour to Aug. 7 and sistership Atlantis is headed for a weekend return to Kennedy Space Center. Now targeted for an Aug. 9 liftoff, the launch of Endeavour on an International Space Station construction mission will mark the orbiter's first post-Columbia flight. "That'll be Endeavour's first launch in five years," said KSC spokesman George Diller.

Armadillo Aerospace: Scaling Up for Modularized Spaceships (Source: Space News)
Since 2001 Armadillo Aerospace has made more than 100 rocket-powered test flights using three different propellant combinations and some 50 engines in a dozen vehicles. The company also has used various kinds of attitude control systems and several generations of electronics boxes to control their launch vehicles. Officials at the Texas-based company believe this step-by-step approach is helping them make significant inroads into computer-controlled, vertical-takeoff and vertical-landing technology that will lead to a new type of human suborbital - and eventually orbital - vehicles in the coming years.

The company's plan is to push forward on a new generation of reusable vehicles. These will be fashioned around mass-produced, modular, bolt-together units composed of dual, liquid oxygen/ethanol propellant tanks mounted on top of an engine. "In theory, we can bolt together as many as we need, whether it's 16 or 64 of them," Carmack said. The modular approach permits Armadillo Aerospace to scale both boosters and upper stages to handle any size payload that is necessary. He sees modularized propulsion systems as the scaleable foundation that takes the company through commercial operations and, eventually, all the way to orbit.

Dayton Laboratory Researches Effect of Small Debris on Space Vehicles (Source: AIA)
Researchers at the University of Dayton are shooting slugs into metal plates with the fastest light-gas gun in the world. They hope to simulate the impact of small chunks of space debris on space vehicles and other equipment. NASA tracks thousands of pieces of debris in space that are larger than a baseball, but research is needed into the effect of smaller, untracked particles, senior research engineer Kevin Poorman says.

French Firm a Leader in Civilian Rocket Market (Source: Wall Street Journal)
If American rocket makers stumble, French firm Arianespace is in line to provide civilian rockets to carry payloads into space. NASA administrator Michael Griffin likes the company's Ariane 5 rocket. Watching the rocket take off, Griffin said the launch system is "probably the best in the world, very smooth and very impressive."

Raytheon Protests Award of Contract to Rivals (Source: Reuters)
Raytheon has filed a protest with the government over its award of a cargo contract to a team of rival contractors. A team led by L-3 Communications Holdings won the contract to supply cargo aircraft over the next five years to the Army and Air Force (using Florida's Cecil Field as a location for the operations). "Raytheon filed a bid protest on Friday with the Government Accountability Office regarding the Joint Cargo Aircraft award announced June 13, 2007. We will have no further comment at this time," Raytheon said.

Squeeze on NASA Earth Science Budget Causing Alarm (Source: Congressional Quarterly)
A squeeze on funding for satellites to look down on the Earth’s environment at a time of growing need for research into the effects of climate change is creating alarm among scientists and on Capitol Hill. NASA is seeing its science budget shrink and its satellite Earth observation capacity endangered even as the agency’s overall mission grows. Since President Bush announced his Vision for Space Exploration, the administration has reduced future-year funding for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate by a total of $4 billion, according to a House panel. A two-year study released by the National Research Council found that NASA’s Earth science budget had declined 30 percent since 2000 and was threatened to fall even further.

IHMC CEO Appointed to NASA Advisory Council (Source: IHMC)
Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) CEO Dr. Ken Ford has been appointed to serve on the prestigious NASA Advisory Council. As member, Ford will join an elite cadre of 34 recognized experts from across the nation, including pioneering Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong, to advise NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on issues and policies important to NASA missions of exploration, science, and engineering.

Ford previously worked in senior positions at NASA Ames Research Center. In addition to the NASA Advisory Council, Ford also serves on the National Science Board, the Air Force Science Advisory Board, and was recently reappointed to serve on the board of Space Florida.

RpK Tells NASA It Will Get $500M in Financing by July (Source: Space News)
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK), one of two U.S. companies receiving financial assistance from NASA to build launchers capable of cheaply delivering cargo to the international space station, says it expects to have $500 million in private financing lined up by late July. RpK's disclosure follows NASA's acknowledgement that the Oklahoma City-based company missed a May 31 deadline for showing NASA that it had secured the rest of the money it needs to complete the K-1 reusable launcher and to demonstrate by 2010 that it is ready to make cargo runs to the space station.

Russia Assures ILS of Steady Supply of Proton Rockets (Source: Space News)
International Launch Services (ILS), the U.S.-based company that sells the Russian Proton-M rocket commercially, has received assurances by the Russian government and by Proton's builder that a steady production of six commercial rockets per year will be available. Nine months after ILS's reorganization following the exit of Lockheed Martin as majority shareholder, the company is benefiting from the reorganization of Russia's space-hardware sector.

Proton's prime contractor, the government-owned Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, has been given broad new responsibilities and now has control over the full Proton production process. In particular, the Breeze-M upper-stage engine, which has caused ILS difficulties in the past, now is under Khrunichev control. Breeze-M engines, which used to require 60 days of production, now are produced in 45 days.

Investigation of Atlas 5 Launch Problem Begins (Source: Space News)
The Air Force and United Launch Alliance are reviewing telemetry and other data to determine the cause of the problem experienced during the June 15 launch of a classified payload aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. The Centaur upper-stage engine experienced "degraded performance" during the launch, but it was not considered a failure. The classified National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite still is expected to be able to perform its mission.

Bigelow Prepares for Launch of Genesis 2 (Source: Space News)
Bigelow Aerospace is expected to launch its next expandable space module, Genesis 2, some time the week of June 25. As the second privately built pathfinder spacecraft for Bigelow Aerospace, Genesis 2 will be placed into Earth orbit by a Dnepr rocket launched from the ISC Kosmotras Space and Missile Complex near Yasny, Russia.

Austrian Officials Release Suspected Russian Spy (Source: Space News)
Austrian authorities on June 21 released a senior Russian space agency (Roskosmos) official who had been detained 10 days earlier on suspicion of spying. Vladimir Vozhzhov was delivered to the Russian embassy premises and was expected to return to Moscow shortly. The official Roskosmos Web site identifies Vozhzhov as the deputy head of the agency's international cooperation department. He was in Vienna as part of the official Russian delegation to the 50th session of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Cape's Delta 4 Launch Pad Repaired (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
With cracks on its launch pad freshly patched up, the giant Delta 4-Heavy rocket has returned to the oceanfront complex aiming for a middle-of-the-night blastoff in late August to haul a missile observation satellite into orbit for the U.S. Air Force. This version of the Delta 4 is the biggest unmanned rocket available in the U.S. inventory today.