October 23 News Items

Ares 1 Launch Plans Announced (Source: Florida Today)
With a series of tests, NASA's new rocket is on track for a 2013 trip to the International Space Station. NASA officials unveiled an ambitious testing schedule that potentially narrows the gap between the end of the shuttle program and the introduction of the Ares I rocket carrying humans. The Ares I possibly will carry a test crew to the International Space Station in Sep. 2013, only three years after the shuttle program ends in 2010. The third and final Ares I test flight will be in September of 2014. Flights before 2015 are test flights, but the tests at least give the U.S. only a three-year gap without a vehicle capable of flight to the ISS.

China to Test Space Weapon in Launching Moon Satellite (Source: AP)
A Chinese submarine will send test signals that could change the course of a satellite when China launches its first moon orbiter, as part of the country's effort to develop space war technology, a human rights watchdog said Tuesday. The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said two survey ships are deployed in the South Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean to send signals to maneuver the lunar exploration satellite, expected to be launched Wednesday. At the same time, a nuclear-powered submarine will send simulated signals to the satellite as a test, it said in a statement.

Once the satellite-maneuvering technology matures, the group said, China would have the know-how to destroy other satellites in space in wartime. China could launch cheaply-made weapon-carrying objects into space and change their courses to destroy or damage satellites of other countries by sending signals from submarines, the center said.

Rocketplane Kistler Appeals NASA COTS Decision (Source: Space News)
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) is not going down without a fight. Less than 24 hours after being notified that NASA was pulling the plug on a 14-month-old agreement to help finance the company's effort to develop a commercial transportation service to and from the international space station, RpK appealed the decision. An attorney for RpK of Oklahoma City, sent NASA a letter Oct. 19 asking the agency to either reconsider the termination or give the company $10 million for progress it made toward its unmet milestones. Under the terms of its Space Act Agreement, RpK cannot appeal its termination to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which normally referees government contracting disputes.

RpK can, however, sue NASA in federal court. But the company first must exhaust a three-step appeals process that begins with NASA's COTS contracting officer and ends with the agency's associate administrator for exploration systems, Rich Gilbrech, who signed off on RpK's termination. RpK's attorney calls NASA's actions "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion that will not withstand judicial scrutiny should this matter remain unresolved after the three NASA levels of review."

China's Long March to the Moon - Beijing Heats Up Space Race (Source: New York Times)
Fifty years after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first man-made satellite, and jolted the U.S. into a race for space, China is ramping up a new space contest -- with an eye on rival Japan. The China National Space Administration is scheduled to fire a "Long March" rocket to propel a satellite into lunar orbit, an important step toward China's goal of beating Japan to become the first Asian nation to put a man on the moon.

On the southern resort island of Hainan, where China is constructing its fourth space-launch center, officials are also planning to build a space-exploration theme park, with a grandstand for viewing rocket launches and shuttle buses that would ferry tourists around the rocket assembly plant, launch tower and other facilities. Much of what China has been doing is reinventing the wheel -- essentially replicating decades-old accomplishments by the U.S., Soviet Union and other nations. But, Chinese scientists, say, they are making advancements of their own.

Russia Launches Military Satellite (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Molniya rocket launched a Russian military satellite early Tuesday, according to Russian media reports. THe Molniya-M rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia Tuesday and placed its payload into an elliptical orbit about an hour later. No details about the satellite, other than that it was for the Russian military, were released, and the launch had not been announced in advance.

Gordon, Miller, Udall Direct NASA to Halt Destruction of Aviation Study Records (Source: NASA Watch)
"By this letter, we are directing NASA to halt any destruction of records relating to the NAOMS project, whether in the possession of the agency or its contractors, and as defined in the attached Appendix. Destruction of documents requested as part of a Congressional inquiry is a violation of criminal federal law 18 U.S.C. 1505."

Space Shuttle Discovery Blasts Off From Florida Spaceport (Source: Reuters)
The U.S. space shuttle Discovery blasted off on a pillar of flames on Tuesday, soaring above Florida marshlands toward a rendezvous in two days with the International Space Station. Discovery's 14-day mission kicks off a refurbishment of the space outpost that will prepare the way for Europe to have its first permanent laboratory in orbit.

NASA Points to Foreign Competition to Spark Support (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
With Discovery on the launchpad ready for liftoff today and only 13 flights left until the three shuttles are mothballed, NASA's top officials are clamoring about a new space race to help push the agency into the future. Their effort, expressed in speeches and interviews during the past several months, is fueled by a fear that unless something sparks a public outcry for an invigorated space-exploration program, the U.S. could lose its global leadership in the quest for the stars. That fear in large part has been created by NASA's own plans for the future, including retiring the shuttle to make way for the $100 billion Constellation Program.

But three years after President Bush charged NASA to return to the moon by 2020, Constellation exists only on engineers' drawing boards and in dreams. There's a five-year gap between the last shuttle launch in 2010 and Constellation's first orbital flight. And there's no assurance that the new president who takes office in 2009 -- let alone the American public -- will endorse a repeat trip to the moon. Aides acknowledge that Griffin -- like the rest of the space community -- is hoping for some kind of a "Sputnik moment," an event capable of driving public demand for space exploration as the Soviet Union's launch of the first satellite did 50 years ago. And recently, he has been warning that America is already falling behind China's aggressive space program.

Not everyone wants to see the shuttle disappear so fast. U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Indialantic, is pushing to get NASA $1 billion more a year for a limited number of shuttle flights -- perhaps two a year -- until Constellation is ready to go. His aim, he says, is to maintain America's prestige as well as jobs at Kennedy Space Center. Visit http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-shuttle2307oct23,0,6120181.story to view the article.

Marshall Role is Key to Ares Work (Source: Huntsville Times)
If America is to return to the moon, beat the determined Chinese and recapture a majority of the space business, it's going to have to rely on "The New Rocket Team" at Marshall Space Flight Center, the head of NASA said during a special ceremony Monday night at the Von Braun Center. Comparing Marshall's ongoing efforts to design and test the Ares I and Ares V rockets to the work of Dr. Wernher von Braun and his Army and NASA rocket teams, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said the space agency would rely heavily on Huntsville's rocket engineers. That help is needed not only to return America to the moon but also to cut NASA reliance on the Russian Space Agency for crew and supply flights to the International Space Station, Griffin said.

Space Elevator Isn't Going Anywhere Yet (Source: CNET)
Turns out it's not so easy to build and race a space elevator. Who knew? For the third time in three years, no team has claimed the prize money in two NASA-sponsored technology challenges to build a robotic climber and a vertical tether that could one day comprise a workable space elevator. In theory, that elevator would transport supplies from the ground to space without expensive fuel or batteries. Despite the letdown, proponents of the technology were hopeful, and the roughly $1 million in prize money will roll over to next year's events. The contests are part of NASA's Centennial Challenges, a series of government-sponsored competitions that support space exploration by encouraging private industry and universities to develop related technologies for cash prizes.

Brazil to Make $385 Million Bid for Orbit Concession (Source: Xinhua)
The Brazilian government is to bid $385 million for the concession of a space orbit slot strategic to South America. "We need that orbital position," said Helio Costa, Brazil's Minister of Telecommunications. Costa will have a meeting Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, with representatives from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru to solve the impasse concerning the concession of the so-called orbit 68. The exploitation of the orbital slot was conceded to the Andean countries seven years ago. However, they had to launch a satellite by Sept. 2007 in order to keep the concession, which they failed to accomplish. According to international rules, other countries could bid for the orbital slot if the deadline expires.

Space Station Addition Should Boost Science (Source: Discovery Channel)
Before the 2003 Columbia accident, NASA used the launch date of the cargo currently loaded into shuttle Discovery as a computer screen-saver. So relentless was the march to install what will be the final U.S. component to the International Space Station, that managers overlooked blatant safety issues, investigators determined after the shuttle's demise. NASA insists it has absorbed the bitter lessons of Columbia and despite a presidential directive to be finished with space station construction in three years, feels no compunction to be driven by the calendar.

Discovery is delivering the space station's final linchpin: the school bus-sized Harmony module, which will attach to new laboratories owned by Europe and Japan. If the 14-day flight unfolds with few delays and no major problems, NASA plans to launch the first of its partners' laboratories on Dec. 6. The flight can't happen soon enough for the European Space Agency, which has weathered launch delays with compassion and patience even while its bank accounts dwindled. ESA's Columbus laboratory was supposed to fly in 2002. Delays with the station's Russian-owned living quarters cost ESA two years' time, which managers handled by slowing development and payments to its contractors.

ESA has a full slate of basic science and technology programs planned for its module, which will become the second of four planned laboratories on the station. Already aboard is the U.S. Destiny module. Japan's Kibo complex is slated for launch next year. Russia is expected to build and fly the station's last lab, though no launch date has been set. Visit http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/10/22/space-station-science-02.html to view the article.