July 3 News Items

Homans Resigns Spaceport Authority Post (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
When Rick Homans took over as executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority he said he would like to hand the job over to someone else sooner or later. On Monday, he announced that would happen sooner. Homans informed the NMSA that he was leaving his post for a job in the private sector. "When I took this job May 1, I made it very clear that I considered myself an 'interim' director and that one of my key jobs would be to find my replacement, a 'permanent' director," Homans wrote. Homans said his new job will be with a company that will establish its headquarters in New Mexico. His new position starts Aug. 1. He did not specify the company.

Benson Space Company to Provide Low-G Rides (Source: Benson)
Using a patent pending combination of technology and technique, the newly designed suborbital space tourism spaceship from Benson Space Company (BSC) will produce rides that do not exceed approximately 3.0 G's of force on passengers. This technology, in development since 2002, uses dive brakes with variable
feathering to greatly reduce deceleration forces during descent and reentry. The BSC spaceship, which is based on an amalgam of the NASA and Air Force X-2, X-15 and T-38 vehicles, will spread its entry deceleration over a wide altitude band by changing the vehicle's ballistic coefficient (vehicle weight divided by drag area) during the atmospheric entry.

Europe and Russia Plan Next Generation Spaceship (Source: The Register)
Plans are underway to build a European alternative to the US's shuttle replacement Orion. The European Space Agency (ESA) has convened a series of meetings with key industrial groups in Europe to thrash out the details of new passenger launch systems. Russia will lead the feasibility study of various Crew Space Transportation Systems (CSTS), while Japan is also reported to be keen to be involved. Daniel Sacotte, the ESA's director of human spaceflight, microgravity and exploration told the BBC that the move was not about beating the US, or being isolationist.

"We want to have parallel systems, to be cooperative; so that if one system has a failure, there is another one that allows space exploration to continue," he said. "We cannot rely on only one [transportation system]." The form the new launch system will take is still undecided. This decision will be the focal point of the meetings. It could be based on the well-established, if slightly ageing Russian Soyuz system, or it could be totally different. The eventual form the CSTS will take will depend on what it is most likely to be used for: low earth orbit missions may call for different hardware than a moon shot, for instance.

AF Holds To EELV Schedule (Source: Aerospace Daily)
The U.S. Air Force says it is holding firm on the planned launch dates for upcoming Atlas V and Delta IV missions using the Pratt & Whitney RL10 upper-stage engine, having traced the launch anomaly on a recent National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) classified satellite launch to a stuck valve on the Atlas V's Lockheed Martin Centaur upper stage. The Air Force says for now at least the late summer launch dates for the upcoming launch of the service's Wideband Gapfiller (WGS) communications spacecraft on an Atlas V with a Centaur and the final Defense Support Program missile warning satellite on a Delta IV Heavy using the RL10 in a different stage will remain unchanged. The Atlas V launch from Cape Canaveral is scheduled for Aug. 11 while the Delta IV Heavy flight is set for Aug. 28.

ICO Global Inks Deal with Loral (Source: MarketWatch)
ICO Global Communications said Tuesday it inked an agreement with Loral for the design of additional medium earth orbit satellites. Terms weren't disclosed. The company also said it's pursuing its litigation against Boeing concerning its medium earth orbit satellites.

Replacement Workers Take-On Endeavour Work During Strike (Source: Florida Today)
The orbiter Endeavour was hoisted up off its transporter in the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building by replacement crane operators as NASA pressed ahead with preparations for a planned Aug. 7 launch. The orbiter will be mated to an external tank with two attached solid rocket boosters before the fully assembled shuttle is hauled out to launch pad 39A on July 11. The work is being done by an experienced team standing in for striking workers with the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers union. USA put together a pool of people who all have experience in orbiter lifting operations, and former crane operators who all have up-to-date certifications are operating the lifting devices. The work is being done in two stages because of the strike.

NASA Extends Contract with Wyle Labs (Source: Houston Business Journal)
NASA has extended its contract with Wyle Laboratories. The $294 million contract extension will support the Space Life Sciences Directorate at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The extension, which extends the contract to April 30, 2011, is the first of two options in NASA's contract with Wyle Laboratories. Terms of the bioastronautics contract call for Wyle's life sciences group, based in Houston, to support the International Space Station, space shuttle, constellation and human research programs. Wyle maintains readiness of space and life sciences-related facilities and laboratories; provides services for program integration, habitability and environmental factors; human adaptation and countermeasures; space medicine; flight hardware; and human research activities. The work is performed at Johnson, Kennedy Space Center in Florida and at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. A second option, if exercised, would extend the contract to April 30, 2013. If both options are exercised, the total potential value of the contract is $973 million.

Russian Rocket Blasts Off with German Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
A Russian rocket blasted off Monday night with a German satellite atop. The Kosmos-3M booster, carrying the German intelligence satellite SAR-Lupe-2, launched from the Plesetsk spaceport. According to a contract signed in 2003, Russia will send into orbit five such satellites, part of Germany's first satellite-based radar reconnaissance system.