October 21 News Items

Four Globalstar Satellites Put Into Orbit by Russian Rocket (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Four Globalstar telecommunications satellites blasted off Sunday from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan atop a Russian Soyuz rocket and were successfully placed into orbit, an Arianespace spokesman said. The first generation of these satellites were launched in 1999 by Starsem, the Russian-European subsidiary of Arianespace from Baikonur. Four more satellites were put in orbit in May this year. A second constellation of 24 telecommunications satellites is expected to go into orbit starting in 2009, using Russian Soyuz rockets but launched from a South American space center in French Guiana.

Space Station: A Modest Proposal to Solve the Problem (Source: What's New)
Remember the scary incident in June when the Russian computers that control ISS orientation crashed while Atlantis was docked? They found a way around it, but not the cause. James Oberg in IEEE Spectrum explains what happened: a cable connector corroded. It’s a swamp up there. Meanwhile, an opportunity presents itself. Tom Pickens, a Texas investor who amassed his billions by shrewd inheritance, believes Big Pharma should run ISS and reap big profits from – well, protein crystals grown in zero gravity - gasp! In the past I’ve suggested giving the ISS to China, but they don’t seem to want it. Why not give it to Tom Pickens instead?

NASA Jet Hits Tree (Source: Florida Today)
A NASA jet used to train astronauts to land the shuttle clipped a tree during landing Saturday. The Gulfstream jet had minor damage on the left wingtip, including a broken position light and strobe light. The plane is a business jet that's been modified to act like the shuttle. An instructor pilot was behind the controls at the time of the accident. Three other people were on board the plane. No one was injured.

Soyuz Capsule Returns ISS Crewmembers to Earth (Source: SpaceflightNow.com)
A Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan Sunday, bringing outgoing space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, flight engineer Oleg Kotov and Malaysia's first man in space, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, safely back to Earth after a steeper-than-usual descent that left the ship well short of its intended landing site.

Department of Labor: Inspiring a New Generation of Aerospace Engineers (Source: Challenger Centers)
On Oct. 18, the Department of Labor (DOL) invited the Challenger Center for Space Science to participate in a conference with state lieutenant governors, NASA and leaders in aerospace education and industry. Discussions sparked by keynote speaker Dr. Eric Jolly, President of the Science Museum of Minnesota focused on the need for innovative solutions to inspire and motivate today's youth in the core subject areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to meet a critical shortfall of engineers in the workforce as baby boomers begin leaving the workforce. General consensus of the roundtable participants was that middle school hands-on laboratory experiences were a particularly successful way of impacting the pre-high school students to choose to study STEM-disciplines.

Personal Spaceflight Bigwigs Will Be in Las Cruces This Week (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
Southern New Mexico becomes the center of the universe for the personal spaceflight industry this week as many of the young industry's heavyweights gather for the International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight and the Wirefly X Prize Cup. The symposium begins Tuesday with a public forum and continues through Thursday with a who's who of industry experts and pioneers. Among them will be Elon Musk, founder of PayPal and launch vehicle developer SpaceX; Alex Tai of Virgin Galactic, the company planning to base part of its operations at Spaceport America; and "space tourist" Anoushe Ansari, who in 2006 boarded a Soyuz spacecraft and spent two weeks aboard the international space station. The symposium strives to foster growth in the commercial space industry by bringing some of its biggest names together in one place.

Enjoy Space Expo,Air Show for $28 (Source: Florida Today)
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be the center of the universe for space buffs during the first weekend in November when it marks 50 years of spaceflight and hosts the World Space Expo with astronauts, air shows and a time-warp barbecue. Visit http://www.worldspaceexpo.com for information.