July 24 News Items

TGV Rockets Succeeds in Recent Test Fire (Source: Journal Record)
A Oklahoma-based aerospace engineering research and development company recently announced the successful test firing of a reusable rocket engine that could one day complete suborbital rocket trips into space and save money along the way. TGV Rockets Inc., a 10-year-old company with offices in Norman and Washington, D.C., completed phase-one testing at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The tests involved a 30,000-pound throttle-able long-life rocket that runs on JP-8 jet fuel rather than rocket fuel. “Our ultimate goal is a transportable spacecraft that can be launched and landed in remote locations to provide quick-look low-cost imagery for both military and commercial applications,” said a company official. “We had a successful series of test firings constituting the completion of phase one testing.” Phase two, which is now in progress, is focused on collecting more detailed information on the performance of the jet fuel on the engine’s configuration.

4Frontiers Announces Financing and Contract Award (Source: 4Frontiers Corp.)
Florida-based 4Frontiers Corp. completed a successful private placement offering in involving thousands of preferred stock shares at a price of $25 per share. The company has raised $550,000, including equity and debt, since the it's 2005 incorporation. The company has also been awarded a contract to provide strategic planning & guidance for a piece of Earth orbital space infrastructure. This work leverages 4Frontiers experience in space facility design and its expanding network of space technology specialists. 4Frontiers has assembled a network of experts to design a Mars settlement and pursue other exploration ventures. Visit http://www.4frontierscorp.com/ for information.

4Frontiers Seeks Interns (Source: 4Frontiers Corp.)
4Frontiers is presently seeking several students to fill vacancies in our internship program. Specific internship opportunities fall into the following categories: Mars Analog Simulation Design; Orbital Facility Feasibility Study; Sales, Promotion & Vender Partnerships; Technical Writing; Education Unit Assembly; Website Development; Public Relations / Promotion / Marketing. Visit http://www.4frontierscorp.com/company/internships.php for information.

Congress Questions Shuttle Schedule, Research Erosion (Source: Florida Today)
During a hearing before the House Space Subcommittee, a congressional auditor expressed concern over NASA's launch schedule. According to the schedule posted as of Jan. 16 missions were to be launched before the space shuttle retires in 2010. That means one shuttle launch every 2.7 months, said a Government Accountability Office official. So far, only one of the missions has flown.

Mark Udall, the Colorado Democrat who chairs the panel, expressed concerned over NASA's budget cuts in the space station's research program over the past few years. "Those cuts have largely decimated the research community that had planned to use the station with potentially serious implications for the productivity of the ISS as a research facility once it is assembled," he said. The only academic to testify before the hearing backed up Udall's concern: "With the loss of motivators such as the possibility of a career in a vibrant, active space-research program, one more incentive for future students disappears," said Paul Neitzel, a fluid mechanics professor at the Georgia Institute of Technolgy.

Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida, top Republican on the committee and the representative whose district includes Kennedy Space Center, said one way to protect the interests of the agency is to protect it against undue burdens. "Demands on NASA must be tempered," he said. "This administration and Congress must deliver the resources needed to complete what has been assigned. That means adequate budgets" in 2008 and beyond.

Alliant to Share in Work on Orion (Source: Baltimore Sun)
Alliant Techsystems Inc. has been named to a team with a $70 million contract to build an emergency propulsion system for the next-generation spacecraft Orion that would allow the crew to separate from the rest of the craft in the event of an emergency. The contract will create 50 jobs in Maryland, most of them at the company's plant in Elkton but also some in Baltimore and Cumberland. ATK employees will build the "attitude control motor" for the launch abort system that will allow the crew capsule to separate and land safely under its own power.

Arizona Observatory Team Discovers Star Spews Molecules Needed for Life (Source: UANews.org)
University of Arizona astronomers who are probing the oxygen-rich environment around a supergiant star with one of the world's most sensitive radio telescopes have discovered a score of molecules that include compounds needed for life. "I don't think anyone would have predicted that VY Canis Majoris is a molecular factory. It was really unexpected," said Arizona Radio Observatory (ARO) Director Lucy Ziurys, UA professor of astronomy and of chemistry. "Everyone thought that the interesting chemistry in gas clouds around old stars was happening in envelopes around nearer, carbon-rich stars," Ziurys said. "But when we started looking closely for the first time at an oxygen-rich object, we began finding all these interesting things that weren't supposed to be there."

Radio Plan: A Price Shift for Satellite (Source: New York Times)
Hoping to persuade skeptical regulators to approve their proposed merger, the nation’s two satellite radio companies announced detailed plans Monday to give consumers the ability to choose the programs that make up their subscription package. The companies, Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio, said they would offer two “à la carte” pricing plans. One would enable consumers to purchase the best of the premium services now offered by each company — like professional football, baseball and basketball — for a monthly fee of $14.99. For $6.99 a month, the other would enable listeners to choose 50 of the nonpremium channels, with each additional channel costing 25 cents. To subscribe to the “à la carte” plans, consumers would have to buy new radios.

ISS Orbit Adjusted to Host Shuttle Endeavor (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russian Mission Control successfully adjusted the International Space Station's orbit in preparation for the docking of the U.S. space shuttle Endeavor, due to be launched August 8. Corrections to the space station's orbit are conducted periodically before launches of Russian cargo ships and U.S. shuttles to compensate for Earth's gravity and to ensure successful dockings. The adjustment brought the space station to an altitude of 337.5 kilometers (about 210 miles) over the Earth's surface.

Australia Plans Satellite Tracking System for Forest Fires (Source: Cosmos)
Australia plans to lead the development of a global satellite system to monitor forest fires in a bid to halt deforestation. The plan, announced yesterday, involves a network of satellite receiving stations to monitor forest fires in the Asia-Pacific region; and then extending that network's capacity to other parts of the world. "The ability to measure and monitor changes in forest cover is critical to international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing global deforestation and supporting sustainable forest management," Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer said.

Japan Having Problems Launching SELENE Orbital Moon Mission (Source: iTWire)
The Japanese lunar orbiter SELENE has been delayed again; it is already four years behind schedule. The Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), also called Kaguya, is a lunar orbiter that, once in orbit about 100 kilometers (60 miles) above the Moon, will send two smaller satellites into polar lunar orbits. Its mission is to study the origins and evolution of the Moon, along with researching the Moon’s surface. However, after being told that another satellite had its onboard electronic condenser installed improperly, engineers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)—Japan’s space agency—found that similar components on SELENE’s two smaller satellites had been improperly installed.

KSC to Pay for Sheriff's Assistance (Source: Florida Today)
Sheriff Jack Parker and Kennedy Space Center officials will meet this week to work out an agreement for the space agency to reimburse the county when deputies are called to enforce state laws on the spaceport grounds. The private security guards who previously handled those cases on KSC property have been undeputized and stripped of state arrest powers because space center leadership said NASA’s contractor could not legally enforce state laws on the federal government installation.

Space Adventures Sees Wide Range of Public Space Travel (Source: Space News)
Private spacewalks, customer stopovers at commercial Earth orbit outposts, and public flights to the Moon are all part of Space Adventures Chief Executive Eric Anderson's vision for the growing space travel market. Over the last decade, Space Adventures has offered an array of spaceflight experiences to astronaut wannabes, including: parabolic aircraft flights that provide customers short stints in a microgravity environment, simulated Soyuz launch and landing profiles via centrifuge, neutral buoyancy tank training to simulate spacewalking conditions, as well as eight-days of cosmonaut overview training in Star City, Russia. But the big-ticket offering, and the activity that brings in big cash to the company, are private space trips to the international space station (ISS). Visit http://www.space.com/spacenews/070723_sn_spaceadven.htmlto view the article.