July 1 News Items

NASA Official Defends Earth Science Spending (Source: Space News)
A top NASA official told a House panel that the agency's budget for Earth science is adequate, but other witnesses, along with Democratic lawmakers, begged to differ. NASA's 2008 budget request includes $1.5 billion for Earth-observing satellites and related research, $32 million more than the agency had requested for 2007. The NASA official defended the request as sufficient to support a balanced program of flight missions, research and analysis, and practical application-oriented projects. NASA's Earth science program includes 14 Earth science satellites in orbit today, seven in development for launch by 2013 or sooner, and a variety of related research projects.

Embry-Riddle Officials Visit NASA KSC (Source: ERAU)
The president and provost of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will visit Kennedy Space Center this week to learn about ongoing and planned programs at the spaceport, and to discuss opportunities for collaboration that would leverage the university's expertise in aerospace education and research.

Restoring Climate Change Monitoring Program Will Be Costly (Source: Space News)
The U.S. government faces billion-dollar investments if it opts to restore the high-priority environmental measurements that were dropped last year from a new generation of civil-military weather satellites. Just one dedicated mission to fly climate-change monitoring instruments lost in the restructuring of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) likely would cost more than $1 billion, according to NASA's deputy director of Earth science.

Space Adventures Plans Lunar Flyby for Tourists (Source: Space News)
The space tourism company Space Adventures is planning to use Russian hardware to send tourists on a trip to circumnavigate the Moon. The first voyage already is booked and that it currently is in negotiations with those customers. Anderson outlined the future for his space travel firm during Flight School, a workshop for commercial space and private aviation ventures, held here June 20-22 at the Aspen Institute.

Italy Space Chief Vows to Curtail Satellite Growth (Source: Space News)
Italian Space Agency (ASI) President Giovanni Bignami says he has been stunned to discover that many of the Italian government science and Earth observation satellites originally intended for launch on the Italian-led Vega small rocket have outgrown their initial specifications and can no longer fly on that vehicle. He intends to rectify the situation by ordering that ASI's newly restarted small-satellite effort be fully compatible with Vega. No exceptions will be granted, he said. The Vega rocket is being developed by the European Space Agency, with Italy paying nearly two-thirds of the development costs. It is scheduled to make its first launch in 2008. Bignami said he is hopeful that an ASI satellite will be Vega's inaugural passenger.

Senate Measure Funds NPOESS Climate Sensors (Source: Space News)
A spending bill approved June 28 by the Senate Appropriations Committee would provide $4.2 billion next year for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including nearly $1 billion for weather satellite programs. Within that amount, the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), which is jointly funded with the U.S. Air Force, would receive its full request of $331 million. The lawmakers provided another $30 million to the NPOESS budget to restore climate-change sensors that were dropped from the program last year. To help cover that work, the committee reduced NOAA's $279 million request for its new series of Geostationary-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite platforms, dubbed GOES-R, by $15 million.