June 5 News Items

$461,792 Lifts Bid for Space Tourism Company (Source: Columbus Dispatch)
PlanetSpace, a space-tourism company that is considering basing much of its operations near Rickenbacker Airport, has received a grant of nearly a half-million dollars from the Ohio Department of Development. The grant provides $461,792 for the purchase of machinery and equipment for research-and-development and manufacturing operations here. PlanetSpace's plan is to construct a 40,000-square-foot building and lease a 19,200-square-foot building for the $6.7 million project, which is expected to create 428 jobs within the first three years of operation.

PlanetSpace Chairman Chirinjeev Kathuria said the grant is just part of a package of loans, tax credits and other incentives valued at about $20 million that is being discussed with state and local officials. He hopes to have an agreement to come to Columbus by the end of July. The Columbus Regional Airport Authority, along with the county, is offering PlanetSpace the land and existing buildings it would need at Rickenbacker as part of its package to the company. PlanetSpace also has been considering sites in Illinois, Virginia and Wisconsin for this project. PlanetSpace is based in Chicago and has operations in Nova Scotia. A launch site for its flights hasn't been determined.

New Dispute over EU Cash for Galileo (Source: MSNBC)
A fresh dispute has erupted over how to fund Europe's rival to the US global positioning system, with some countries threatening to reopen a divisive budget deal unless their companies are guaranteed business. Transport ministers are expected to agree on Friday to end negotiations with a private consortium and pay for the Galileo system with public money. But there is no agreement on where the extra $3.2 billion would come from. Most of the 27 member states insist on using the existing EU budget rather than finding fresh cash. That would mean sacrificing some other research and transport projects funded in the 2007-13 framework.

The Great Lunar Lander Race (Source: MSNBC)
Last year, Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace ended up just shy of winning $350,000 of NASA’s money in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. But over the weekend, the rocketeers under the leadership of video-game programmer John Carmack did everything they needed to do to win the prize - wowing legions of space enthusiasts in the process. As detailed in Carmack's latest dispatch, Armadillo’s rocket-powered hovercraft blasted off, hung in the air for 90 seconds and landed safely at the Oklahoma Spaceport - not just once, but twice. You can watch Armadillo's video record of the flight by clicking on the image at right - or you can opt for the original, large-format video on Armadillo's Web site.

Representatives of the X Prize Foundation and the Federal Aviation Administration were on site to watch the test, and Carmack said the there-and-back-again flight would have been a Level 1 winner if it had taken place during the actual X Prize Cup competition. Unfortunately, the Armadillo team will have to wait until October, when the X Prize Cup returns to New Mexico.

The Universe, Expanding Beyond All Understanding (Source: New York Times)
When Albert Einstein was starting out on his cosmological quest 100 years ago, the universe was apparently a pretty simple and static place. Common wisdom had it that all creation consisted of an island of stars and nebulae known as the Milky Way surrounded by infinite darkness. We like to think we’re smarter than that now. We know space is sprinkled from now to forever with galaxies rushing away from one another under the impetus of the Big Bang.

If things keep going the way they are, Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University and Robert J. Scherrer of Vanderbilt University calculate, in 100 billion years the only galaxies left visible in the sky will be the half-dozen or so bound together gravitationally into what is known as the Local Group, which is not expanding and in fact will probably merge into one starry ball. Unable to see any galaxies flying away, those astronomers will not know the universe is expanding and will think instead that they are back in the static island universe of Einstein. As the authors, who are physicists, write in a paper to be published in The Journal of Relativity and Gravitation, “observers in our ‘island universe’ will be fundamentally incapable of determining the true nature of the universe.”

Maiden Vega to Fly Science Payload from Kourou Spaceport (Source: Flight International)
Vega, the European Space Agency's new small launch vehicle, will carry a science satellite and not a dummy payload on its maiden flight in 2008. The science satellite will orbit at 620 miles and is to be covered in mirrors to reflect ground-based lasers. Vega is a three-stage solid rocket that will place up to 1,500kg (3,300lb) into low-Earth orbit. Its development is largely being paid for by the Italian government. "We are now aiming for a small satellite mission every two years. Small means 300-400kg spacecraft and a cost of €50-100 million [$67-135 million]," said Italian Space Agency president Giovanni Frabizio Bignami.