October 8 News Items

Future of Pharmaceuticals Could be in Space (Source: AIA)
The future of the International Space Station may be in the hands of private investors after 2015, when NASA plans to cut its funding to the orbiting facility. One industry that could benefit from having more time to perform experiments in space is pharmaceuticals.

NASA Contract Underscores NM Area's Space Connections (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Denco, Inc., a Las Cruces firm, last week won a $3.1 million contract from the NASA. Denco will build launch site facilities for NASA's Orion Launch Abort System. The announcement is positive on several local fronts. It's great a local firm won the contract. More work, more business. The facility will be built at Launch Complex 32 at White Sands Missile Range. This demonstrates again the value and versatility of WSMR. NASA's White Sands Test Facility will supervise the Pad Abort 1 program, which the Denco-constructed facilities will support. WSTF continually flies under the radar, but the people there do important, high-tech, work right in our backyard.

NASA Narrows Ares 1 Avionics Field to Two (Source: Space News)
NASA selected Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. and Boeing Space Exploration as the finalists for a contract to build the instrumented avionics ring for the agency's planned Ares 1 crew launch vehicle, the companies said.

Hispasat Reports Strong Financial Performance (Source: Space News)
Spanish satellite-fleet operator Hispasat reported sharp increases in profit and revenues for the six months ending June 30 and said it expects profit to grow at double-digit rates annually until at least 2013.

Dnepr to Loft Three Earth Observing Satellites in Late 2008 (Source: Space News)
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) will launch two of its 100-kilogram-class Earth observation satellites, Britain's UK-DMC2 and Spain's Deimos-1, aboard a Russian-Ukrainian Dnepr rocket in late 2008, SSTL announced Oct. 8. The same rocket is expected to carry the 200-kilogram DubaiSat-1 optical Earth observation satellite now under construction in South Korea as the principal payload.

European Firms Launch Dual-Use Sat Laser Project (Source: Defense News)
France’s Astrium Satellites, in parallel with its subsidiary, Tesat-Spacecom of Germany, plans to use two satellite-laser technologies the companies developed separately to stitch together a civil-military program that ultimately would include a satellite data-relay payload in geostationary orbit. Astrium is using the success of the technologies to pitch four applications to civil and military authorities: 1) Links between a low-orbiting satellite, a UAV and a geostationary satellite; 2) Inter-satellite transmissions between geostationary satellites, or between low-orbiting spacecraft; 3) Transmissions between low-orbiting observation satellites and their ground control stations to replace what could be a congestion in X-band telemetry transmissions; and 4) Communications from deep-space missions.

Confident Atlas Rocket Team Ready to Launch Again (Source: SpaceFlightNow.com)
The Atlas rocket program looks to return to its successful ways this week, launching a powerful U.S. military communications satellite Wednesday night with a tried-and-true engine valve instead of a newer design blamed for creating serious problems during the last ascent four months ago. Atlas enjoyed a spotless 14-year consecutive success record covering 80 flights, but that score card was hit with a major blemish June 15 when a leaky fuel valve caused an Atlas 5 rocket to fall short of its intended altitude.