October 17 News Items

Discovery Gets OK to Launch (Source: Florida Today)
Discovery and seven astronauts got a green light Tuesday to launch next week despite a safety panel's concerns about slight defects in three shuttle heat shield panels. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:38 a.m. Tuesday, midway through a 10-minute opportunity to put the shuttle on course for a high-flying hook-up with the International Space Station. Discovery's crew was cleared for flight after senior agency managers decided small cracks in a protective silicon carbide coating on the panels would not pose an undue risk to the astronauts during atmospheric re-entry.

Delta II Launches GPS Satellite from Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
A Delta II rocket carrying an Air Force GPS satelltie launched at 8:23 a.m. Wednesday from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. This was the 77th consecutive Delta 2 rocket to deliver its payload. At least 25 Delta 2 rockets remain to fly during the next few years.

Celestis Plans Memorial Spaceflight with SpaceX (Source: Celestis)
Celestis Corp. has integrated two flight canisters containing cremated remains onto the Falcon 1 launch vehicle at SpaceX headquarters in El Segundo. The "Explorers Flight" will be launched into Earth orbit from the SpaceX Marshall Islands facility no earlier than Feb. 2008. The canister includes 208 participants from 14 nations.

Shuttle Strike Becomes Longest Ever at KSC (Source: Florida Today)
The contract standoff between a Machinists union and NASA contractor United Space Alliance has turned into the union's longest strike ever at Kennedy Space Center. The strike, which began June 14, has lasted 126 days as of Wednesday. That's longer than several Machinists union strikes at the Space Center from the 1970s to the 1990s, according to union officials. Both sides have not returned to the bargaining table since last month, when a scheduled two-day negotiating session arranged with the help of a federal mediator broke down after one day and the second day was canceled.

Back in the Space Race: Russian Revival Raises New Questions (Source: AFP)
The Soyuz rocket, carrying an American, a Malaysian and a Russian, was a study in world peace as it thundered toward the stars on the latest mission to the International Space Station. "The more people in space the better it is for human beings," declared American reserve astronaut Michael Fincke as he drank toasts with Russian colleagues at a dilapidated viewing platform at Baikonur spaceport. But while American officials sang their Russian counterparts' praises after the October 10 blast-off, some experts are questioning Russia's future role in space.

Experts warn that US-Russian post-Cold War space cooperation could crumble as Moscow recovers its economic and diplomatic strength, while tensions grow over Washington's missile defence plans in eastern Europe. Some also feel time may be running out for the iconic Baikonur spaceport, which has been at the center of Moscow's space program for half a century and saw the first ever satellite launch and the first human space launch. Click here to view the article.

Risky Space Tourism Gets a Boost From a Hands-Off FAA (Source: USA Today)
In the latest space race — to lift paying customers out of Earth's atmosphere — aviation safety regulators occupy a new niche: They are promoting an industry expected to suffer deadly accidents instead of applying strict safety rules. FAA officials detailed their unique relationship with the emerging space-tourism industry for a gathering of air and space lawyers this month. Several firms are racing to serve people willing to pay a steep price for the privilege of floating briefly in space, perhaps in as little as two years. Some scientists believe commercial competition will fuel rapid development of space travel technology.

In the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, Congress told the FAA to treat the industry more like an adventure business than an air carrier. The law protects the rights of those who wish to be among the first private citizens to go into space — likening them to visionaries and adventurers who knowingly take other risks like climbing mountains — while giving the people who operate the new types of unproven spacecraft the scientific latitude to learn from their first fatal mistakes. "This is an ultra-hazardous business," Patti Grace Smith, the FAA's associate administrator for Commercial Space Transportation told attendees at an American Bar Association forum on air and space law. She said part of the agency's effort to promote the industry's success means giving it room to fail. Visit http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-10-16-space-tourism_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip to view the article.

Russia to Develop New Carrier Rocket for Manned Spaceflight (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia's space agency will soon announce a tender to develop a new carrier rocket, to ensure successful implementation of its manned-flight program. "A special commission will determine the design criteria [for the new space vehicle] and the domestic companies eligible for participation in the tender," said Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency. The Federal Space Program for 2006-2015 stipulates the construction of a reusable "Clipper" spacecraft jointly with European partners, and two carrier rockets, the Angara and the Soyuz-2. While the family of Soyuz-2 launch vehicles is already operational, Russia is still developing the entire range of Angara boosters. The Khrunichev State Research and Production Center, the Angara designer and manufacturer, will exhibit mock-up models of Angara boosters at the Dubai AirShow 2007 on Nov. 11-15.

Internet Preparing To Go Into Outer Space (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
After expanding across Earth, the Internet is now set to spread into outer space to reach parts no network has gone before, one of its co-creators predicted. Vinton Cerf said the proposed "interplanetary" Internet would allow people an ability "to access information and to control experiments taking place far away" from Earth. Expanding into the solar system would bring new rules and regulations too, he told an annual Seoul forum, saying he and other experts were working on a set of standards designed to guide space-era Internet communications. "Finally, the Internet can take us where no network has gone before," said Cerf, who is Google's vice president and chief internet evangelist, Cerf told a separate news conference that new standards were needed because of the huge distances and time delays involved in communication across space.

Senate Approves NASA Budget (Source: SpaceToday.net)
The US Senate passed an appropriations bill Tuesday that gives NASA $1 billion more than originally requested, after fending off a last-minute bid to divert some of that money to another program. The Senate passed the Commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill on a 75-19 vote on Tuesday after debating a number of amendments to the bill. One of the amendments debated Tuesday would have diverted $150 million from the agency to fund the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, which reimburses states for the costs of jailing illegal immigrants, but the amendment was shot down by a wide margin. The overall bill gives $18.5 billion for NASA, thanks in part to an amendment the Senate approved earlier this month that adds $1 billion to the agency's budget. The Senate version of the bill must be reconciled with the House version, which lacks the extra $1 billion, and also faces a threatened veto from the president.