August 14 News Items

US Military Sees Looming China Threat to Satellites (Source: AFP)
China may be just three years away from being able to disrupt US military satellites in a regional conflict, a senior US military leader said. The warning came amid calls at a conference in Alabama for intensified efforts to ensure US "space superiority" in the wake of China's shoot down January 11 of one of its own satellites with a ballistic missile.

Space Water Cools Thirst, Not Enthusiasm, For Space Shuttle Launch (Source: CSA)
The California Space Authority (CSA) shared hundreds of free bottles of “Space2O” water, a new Microgravity Enterprise, Inc. (MEI) product, to crowds gathering to view the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour. The two organizations recently signed an
agreement promote space enterprise efforts. The initial release of Space2O at this event celebrated Barbara Morgan’s contribution on the Endeavour crew as the first “Educator Astronaut” into space.

SpaceDev Reports Fiscal Results (Source: SpaceDev)
SpaceDev reported financial results for the six and three months ended June 30, 2007 with revenue over $17.7 million and $8.6 million for the two periods, as well as net income over $156,000 and $47,000 for the six and three month periods ended June 30, 2007, respectively.

NASA May Delay Next Shuttle Flight (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA is pondering whether the next space shuttle mission in October should be delayed for modifications to thwart a new external tank (ET) debris threat, following the discovery of a serious tile divot on Endeavour. The next shuttle flight, STS-120, currently is set for launch Oct. 24. NASA now must decide if it should delay the flight until brackets holding the 17-inch oxygen feed line are modified to prevent ice buildup like that implicated in the insulation impact damage to Endeavour.

Engineers believe ice that formed in the bracket played a role in popping off insulation from the spot 58 seconds into Endeavour's launch Aug. 8. The insulation, possibly mixed with ice, bounced off the shuttle ET aft attachment frame and flew into the belly, where it left three inconsequential dings and the deeper gouge that is raising concern. A new titanium bracket is planned to enter service by mid-2008, since engineers have known the current steel configuration is more conducive to ice formation. Three ETs have been built without the modification, including the ET for STS-120.

Bigelow Aerospace to Expedite Schedule and Move Ahead With First Manned Module (Source: Bigelow)
Global launch costs have been rising rapidly over the course of the past few years. These price hikes have been most acute in Russia due to a number of factors including inflation, previously artificially low launch costs and the falling value of the U.S. dollar. What this now means for Bigelow Aerospace is that to conduct another subscale demonstrator mission would cost two to three times what it has in the past.

This has forced us to rethink our strategy with Galaxy. Due to the fact that a high percentage of the systems Galaxy was meant to test can be effectively validated on a terrestrial basis, the technical value of launching the spacecraft — particularly after the successful launch of both Genesis I and II — is somewhat marginal. Therefore, we have decided to expedite our schedule yet again, and are now planning to move ahead directly with Bigelow Aerospace’s first human habitable spacecraft, the Sundancer. With this decision made, the future of entrepreneurial, private sector-driven space habitats and complexes could be arriving much earlier than any of us had previously anticipated.

Russia Designs Space Launch Complex for South Korea (Source: Itar-Tass)
Russia has been commissioned by South Korea to design a unique space launch complex. Local builders levelled out part of a hill to prepare the site for the construction of a space launch complex on the South Korean Pusan Island. This was needed, as the locality has a rough terrain and no flat surfaces. Russia will ensure the first two launchings of a booster rocket from the South Korean island. South Korea, with Russia’s technological assistance, plans to launch from this complex its first booster rocket in late 2008. The booster will put on a near-earth orbit a multipurpose research satellite weighing up to 100 kilograms.

Preparations Start to Launch Japanese Satellite from Baikonur (Source: Itar-Tass)
Preparations were started to launch the Japanese JCSAT-11 communications satellite from the Baikonur spaceport. The upper stage for the Proton rocket was delivered to Baikonur on Tuesday. The launch is scheduled for September 6.

Is Human Spaceflight Too Dangerous? (Source: The Guardian)
Once again NASA has got itself into a tizzy about damage to a space shuttle. At the weekend, astronauts examined the underside of Endeavour to work out how serious a gash in the craft's heat shield is. NASA has been rightly cautious of damage to the heat shield that lines the underside of the shuttle. There's little doubt that there is a case for sending people into space (if properly resourced, a human can do far more useful science than a robot according to a report by the Royal Astronomical Society in 2005) but what's the point in sending people up into space on a rickety old space shuttle? Should space agencies save their cash and self-impose a moratorium on human spaceflight until we build better and more reliable spacecraft?

New Zealand Enters the Space Age (Source: Stuff.co.nz)
Commercial rockets will be launched from New Zealand late next year if a couple of businessmen get their way. Rocket Lab Ltd said they would begin firing 5.5 metre tall carbon fibre rockets into space in September next year. The rockets, named Atea, or "space", are expected to carry scientific payloads into sub-orbit. They will also be available to launch human ashes into space - for a fee.

Russian Calls for Building Lunar Base (Source: Itar Tass)
A new lunar program should include not only manned flights to the Moon but also the creation of a permanent manned base there, Academician Boris Chertok said. “There must be a base on the Moon. It’s senseless to simply repeat what the Americans did at the end of the 1960s. Maybe only China needs this but only in order to show its scientific and technological achievements,” Chertok told journalists on Monday. The patriarch of Russian cosmonautics and one of the closest allies of Sergei Korolev, Chertok said a base on the Moon can fulfil not only scientific and military tasks. “Since science and physics are developing rapidly, new goals appear and we can only contemplate them today. For example, wireless energy transmission – a problem scientists have been trying to solve for a hundred years,” the academician said.