September 27 News Items

Arianespace to Market Indian Launch Services (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Arianespace plans to market two Indian space rockets in a potential boost to the South Asian nation offering commercial satellite launch services. India has developed two launch systems -- the PSLV capable of putting satellites of up to 1.6 tonnes in orbit and the GSLV that can launch payloads weighing between two tons and three tons.

India to Develop its Version of GPS (Source: DNA India)
India will develop its own version of the Global Positioning System by launching seven satellites in the next six years. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), expected to be functional by 2012, will be used for surveying, telecommunications, transport, identifying disaster areas and public safety among others. The satellites will be placed at a higher orbit to have a larger signal footprint and lower number of satellites to map the region. The first satellite of the proposed constellation is expected to be launched in 2009.

Eleven Mars Missions Equal One Iraq War (Source: BurtonMackenzie.com)
NewScientist reported that the cost of President Bush's proposed mission to Mars was "expected to cost $40 billion to $80 billion." That really seemed like a lot of money. It is believed that as of Sep. 2007, the war in Iraq has cost the United States a $454 billion dollars. If the original Mars estimate was accurate, that means the U.S. could have funded somewhere between 5 and 11 independent human missions to Mars with the funds spent in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Asks Congress for $190 Billion in War Funds (Source: AIA)
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked Congress for nearly $190 billion for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the money -- $11 billion -- would be used to pay for additional armored vehicles needed to protect troops from roadside bombs. The request adds another $42 billion to the administration's initial budget request of $142 billion plus $5.3 billion allotted over the summer for the purchase of armored vehicles.

Russia Promises Retaliation if Weapons Deployed in Space (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia is ready to take appropriate measures if weapons are deployed in space, the commander of the Russian Space Forces said. "Should any country deploy weapons in space, then the laws of armed warfare are such that retaliatory weapons are certain to appear," Col. Gen. Vladimir Popovkin said. He said Russia and China have drafted an international declaration on the non-deployment of weapons in space and sent it to the UN.

"It is necessary to establish the rules of the game in space," he said, adding that the deployment of weapons in space could have unpredictable consequences, since such weapons are "very complex systems." "A sizable war could break out," the commander said. He said space must not be the sphere of interests of any one country. "We do not want to fight in space, and we do not want to call the shots there either, but we will not permit any other country to do so," he said.

Space Station Partners Bicker Over Closure Date (Source: AFP)
NASA administrator Michael Griffin has told space station partners that the US agency has no plans for "utilisation and exploitation" of the science research lab for more than five years after it is completed, [European Space Agency (ESA) chief Jean-Jacques] Dordain said. "ESA is not prepared to pay NASA's share when NASA has left the space station," Dordain told reporters Tuesday night on the sidelines of the space summit. "If NASA is staying, we are ready to follow," he added. "If NASA is quitting, I shall not propose to ESA to pay part of the cost that NASA is covering today."

NASTAR Spaceflight Training Center Opens in Pennsylvania (Source: ETC)
The National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center will open on Oct. 3 in Southampton, Pennsylvania. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will attend the opening ceremony, which will feature Buzz Aldrin and private space travelers Anousheh Ansari and Greg Olsen. NASTAR has been selected by Virgin Galactic to provide training for the company's first 100 suborbital spaceflight passengers. Visit www.nastarcenter.com/launch for information.

NASA's Launch Starts 3Billion-Mile Trip to Asteroids (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA's Dawn spacecraft began an unprecedented, eight-year mission to the asteroid belt with a liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport on Thursday morning. The unmanned probe was developed to circle two of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, Vesta and Ceres, for closeup studies. The orbital scrutiny should provide scientists with new clues about the collection of rocky materials that were left over from the formation of the planets. Thousands of asteroids orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

After separating from the Delta II rocket, the spacecraft will rely on a novel ion propulsion system to gradually achieve the velocity required for a mission estimated to span 3.2 billion miles. The propulsion drive, popularized on a grander scale in the Star Trek television and Star Wars film series, relies on solar power to heat xenon fuel. The heat fractures xenon atoms into electrically-charged sub-atomic particles called ions. As the ions are accelerated across an electrical field aboard the spacecraft, they exit as a gentle but continuiously accelerating thrust.

On 50th Anniversary of Space Age, Students From 9 Countries Will Fly With ZERO-G (Source: SpaceRef.com)
On October 6, nine exceptional students from around the world will commemorate the 50th anniversary of space age and experience weightlessness for the first time on a zero-gravity flight from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. This flight will serve to inspire students worldwide to excel in education, demonstrate international cooperation and visibly launch humankind's next 50 years in space. The flight is part of the global celebration of United Nations-declared World Space Week, October 4-10.

NASA KSC Provides Inventions for Licensing (Source: NASA)
NASA Kennedy Space Center has filed several KSC-developed technologies with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and they are available for licensing. They include: KSC-12848: Foam/Aerogel Composite Materials for Thermal and Acoustic Insulation and Cryogen Storage; KSC-12890: Aerogel/Polymer Composite Materials; KSC-12978: Mechanical Alloying of a Hydrogenation Catalyst Used for the Remediation of Contaminated Compounds; and KSC-13100: Ice Adhesion Mitigation. For more information contact Randy Heald, Patent Counsel, Kennedy Space Center, Mail Code CC-A, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899; telephone (321) 867-7214; fax (321) 867-1817.

GenCorp Earns $15.6 Million in Third Quarter (Source: Sacramento Bee)
GenCorp Inc. reported its third-consecutive profitable quarter, boosted by gains in the company's defense and aerospace business. For the third quarter, the company earned $15.6 million, a sharp improvement over the loss of $13.1 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue soared 25.4 percent to $198.5 million, largely on the strength of higher sales in space and defense programs, including NASA's Orion program and missile programs. "Our strategy to focus on space propulsion and missile defense ... has driven our success."

Seven Nations Planning Missions to the Moon (Source: Hindustan Times)
Seven nations, including India, the US and China, are planning to launch lunar missions in the near future, even as experts have sounded a word of caution about the impact these missions would have on moon's environment. Japan, Germany, Britain and Italy are the other countries whose delegates made their countries' plans clear at the 58th Astronautical Congress. "There is need for increased cooperation and coordination among countries to ensure that there is no pollution of lunar environment," said Roger-Maurice Bonnet, President, Committee on Space Research (COPSAR), France.