July 19 News Items

Price for Trip to Space Station Skyrockets (Source: Florida Today)
U.S. tourists traveling this summer to Europe who complain about the poor exchange rate have nothing on tourists going to space. The cost of flying to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship has gone from about $25 million earlier this year to about $30 million to $40 million for trips planned in 2008 and 2009, said Eric Anderson, president and CEO of Space Adventures. "It's mostly because of the fallen dollar," Anderson said. A U.S. dollar currently is worth about 25 1/2 Russian rubles, compared to 32 rubles in 2002.

Satellite in Political Storm has Saved Lives (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
As a debate rages over an aging weather satellite's role in tracking hurricanes, there's no question about its importance to the safety of thousands of ships at sea. "There is no doubt that as a result of ... QuikSCAT, there are ships that haven't sunk, and there are sailors who haven't died... In other words, it saves lives and property," said a NASA official. At a congressional hearing in Washington into the ouster of Bill Proenza as head of the National Hurricane Center, some of the testimony focused on his claim that QuikSCAT is critical to hurricane trackers -- and forecasters' dismissal of that claim. But there is little dispute over QuikSCAT's benefit to boaters, fishermen, cruise ships and the estimated 15,000 tankers and freighters that ply the oceans around the world. QuickSCAT provides detailed measurements of wind direction and speed over vast ocean surfaces. Meteorologists with NOAA say it has significantly improved marine forecasts and warnings.

India To Orbit Israeli Spy Satellite In September (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
A leading Indian broadsheet quoted anonymous sources Wednesday as saying the country is planning to launch an Israeli spy satellite in September. According to information obtained by Times of India, the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) time-proven four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will carry a 260-kg satellite named TechSar from the Sriharikota spaceport, on an island off India's southern coast. The launch will cost around $15 million.

Everything OK, Says Rocketplane Kistler (Source: Oklahoma Gazette)
Despite funding problems and layoffs, RpK continues their reassurance that everything is fine and state officials continue to have confidence in the Oklahoma City-based company. RpK officials failed to meet a COTS funding deadline mandated by a NASA. RpK diverted funds from its suborbital space passenger subsidiary to the reusable orbital subsidiary, according to a laid-off RpK manager. During the past few months, RpK laid off about a fifth of its workforce, almost all from suborbital space tourism division, Rocketplane Global. The state of Oklahoma awarded Rocketplane investors an $18 million tax credit to help build the suborbital tourism ship. Company President Randy Brinkley said only one person has left from the reusable rocket company division, but that a total of 17 employees are no longer with the other division due to cutbacks.

Camping on the Moon (Source: DailyPress.com)
Of all the work NASA Langley Research Center employees are contributing to NASA's back-to-the-moon quest, nothing drives home the reality of the next age of manned space exploration quite like the mock-up lunar habitat housed in Building 1148. The inflatable structure isn't a full-scale model or the final design of what astronauts might one day live in during an extended trip to the moon. But it's a start. A trip to the moon where a group of astronauts would stay for four days to a week is on the board for 2020. Langley researchers and engineers are among the many NASA employees and contractors working on the design, structure and materials for the habitat. Early trips may only last a week, but eventually NASA wants astronauts to stay for months at a time, if not erect permanent colonies.

Langley will work with ILC Dover - the company that manufactures spacesuits - to test various materials for the habitat's outer structure. While "inflatable" may sound flimsy, potential materials include Kevlar, and the exterior would likely be made up of layers and measure a foot thick. A number of factors come into play when designing a human living space for the moon's atmosphere. It must protect against temperatures that can range, depending on time and place, from more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit to less than minus-200 degrees Fahrenheit. It must protect the astronauts from potentially harmful cosmic radiation. And it must protect against the chance of getting struck by micrometeoroids.

UP Aerospace Offers Space Generation Advisory Council Low-Cost Launches for Youth (Source: UP)
UP Aerospace, a Connecticut-based company and world leader in responsive and low-cost space access, is offering the Space Generation Advisory Council access to low-cost launches for its youth members. The Space Generation Advisory Council is the leading international body representing youth on all space matters, and its youth members will be able to obtain UP Aerospace’s best educational pricing for the launch of experimental packages. Under this offer, an experiment can be flown into space, recovered, and provided back to young experimenters for as little as $2000.

Space Iinvestors See Potential for Big Payoff (Source: The Age)
Just a few years ago, the idea of bankrolling starry-eyed ventures to fly ordinary people into space was laughed off as science fiction. Now some investors are betting on space tourism as the next big thing. The infant industry got a boost in June when Boston Harbour Angels invested in XCOR Aerospace, a private rocket company developing a spaceship that will take off and land like an aeroplane. "This industry is going to explode or fizzle," said John Hallal of the Boston group. "If it's successful, people will look back and say, 'These Boston Harbour investors are smart guys.' If not, it's not the end of the world."

Florida Raises Share of Industry-Sponsored University Research (Source: SSTI)
Between 2001 and 2005, industry-sponsored research in Florida universities surged forty-four percent to over $104 million. Florida's increase outpaced all but six other states and was higher than the nation's other large states (California, Texas, New York, etc.). Florida's overall total for externally funded university research (government, industry, foundations, etc.) was over $1.44 billion in 2005, including 7.23 percent from industry. Florida ranked fifth nationwide in 2005 for the percentage of industry-funded research.

Space Florida Funds UF Research Project (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida's board of directors has approved a $349,000 grant to researchers at the University of Florida for a "Precision Attitude Determination and Control System for Small Satellites”. This effort will combine two major areas of research into a viable system for small spacecraft while also having commercial potential. UF proposes to work with industrial partners so that technology transfer and commercialization of the research results will occur in Florida as soon as possible.

Space Florida Joins NASA in Educational Agreement (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida has signed an Educational Joint Partnership Agreement with NASA to combine their efforts to achieve each entity’s educational initiatives to inspire, engage, educate, and employ the next-generation technical workforce. The agreement will enhance NASA's access to Florida resources when selecting candidates for their education, internship and research programs. Space Florida’s experience in promoting math and science education will also help NASA recruit Florida’s most promising students and prepare Florida’s aerospace workforce of tomorrow.

Sharper Image Hopes ZERO-G Flights Will Stop Falling Sales (Source: San Francisco Business Times)
Shaper Image will start selling ZERO-G aircraft flights with periods of weightlessness for $3,500 per person plus tax. Flights of this type have long been used to train astronauts for work in orbit. Steven Lightman, president and CEO of Sharper Image, said the offering is in line with the company's tradition of selling cutting-edge products. Customers who pay for the flight on a Boeing 727-200 will get several periods of what the company called "various degrees of gravity." Upon landing, customers are offered champagne for toasts and get to keep their flight suits and a DVD of the trip. The price of the flight doesn't include travel to Las Vegas or to Cape Canaveral, where the flights take place.

About the FLORIDA SPACErePORT (Source: ERAU)
The FLORIDA SPACErePORT newsletter is distributed directly to an international audience of over 1,100 space industry leaders from business, government and academia. Re-distribution to additional recipients is encouraged. News items are gathered and posted daily on the FLORIDA SPACErePORT blog at www.spacereport.blogspot.com and then arranged contextually for newsletter distribution on Mondays. The SPACErePORT blog is searchable and includes an archive of all past news items dating back to October 2006. The newsletter began in the early 1990s as a fax publication of the Spaceport Florida Authority, provided as a service of the State of Florida for space industry officials and policy makers in Tallahassee. It is now distributed solely via email and is developed with support from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.