October 13 News Items

Three Florida Firms Win NASA SBIR Phase Two Grants (Source: NASA)
Three Florida-based small businesses have been selected for NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase Two grant awards. They include: Summation Research of Melbourne for Programmable High-Rate Multi-Mission Receiver for Space Communications; Soneticom of Melbourne for Remote EMI Field Strength Mapping; and APECOR of Orlando for Integrated Three-Port Converters for Compact and Efficient Power Management. Congratulations!

Planetary Clues Tantalize Scientists (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Lightning on Jupiter's poles, exploding geysers on one of Saturn's moons and an Earth-like planet likely forming hundreds of light-years away. It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but to the hundreds of scientists who met this week in Orlando, such discoveries are pieces of a galactic puzzle. The American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences on Friday wrapped up its annual conference in Orlando. Sponsored by the University of Central Florida, the weeklong conference highlighted several key findings this year. Click here to view the article.

Space Launch: Deciding When it's 'Safe Enough' (Source: Ottawa Citizen)
NASA managers have decided to launch their next shuttle mission Oct. 23 despite the advice of their own safety experts, who wanted a two-month delay to repair tiny cracks on the surface of some wing panels. The cracks are like slight scratches on the paint of a car. They are found in the coatings of three of the 44 carbon panels that shield the main wing structures from heat. NASA's safety panel, appointed after the Columbia disaster, is worried they could grow into a big problem under the intense heat and pressure of re-entry. Next week, the shuttle managers and the safety experts will have their final discussions. But top shuttle boss Wayne Hale has already let his troops know he wants an immediate launch of Discovery, now on the launch pad. He's under pressure to fly 13 more shuttle missions by 2010, to finish building the International Space Station.

Judges Extend Block of Background Checks at JPL (Source: Pasadena Star-News)
A panel of three federal judges has extended its temporary injunction blocking NASA from requiring background checks of all JPL employees. Without an injunction, JPL employees who did not complete the necessary paperwork would have been "voluntarily terminated" Oct. 27. The decision is pending appeal, a hearing for which is to be scheduled for the week of Dec. 2. It was based on a lawsuit filed by 28 Jet Propulsion Laboratory staff members against Caltech, NASA, and the Department of Commerce over invasion-of-privacy concerns. The ruling "essentially has placed the burden on the government to show what its rationale is, why it needs this information and why this is the most narrowly tailored method of getting this information," Dan Stormer, attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

New Mexico Spaceport Won't be Delayed, State Says (Source: Las Cruces Sun-News)
The state won't allow Doña Ana County to delay the collection of a spaceport sales tax, county officials said. There's a chance the county could take legal action to keep the tax from being collected. The county commission passed a resolution Wednesday to delay collecting the tax until proper framework was in place to spend it. But the state taxation and revenue department notified the county Friday that the action wasn't valid, despite saying earlier that it was. Now the state is requiring that the county amend or repeal the ordinance that calls for the tax, "and there's not time to do that before the tax starts being collected, so we're going to have to figure out another option," said a commissioner. Commissioners will discuss their next step in a closed meeting on Monday.

The commission is attempting to delay the tax because of a hurdle it has encountered in state law dealing with the spaceport. According to statute, tax revenue can't be spent until a spaceport tax district has been created, but a spaceport tax district can't be formed until at least two cities or counties approve a spaceport tax. So far, Doña Ana County is the only local government to have authorized a tax. The one-quarter of 1 percent tax is expected to generate some $49 million toward the $198 million cost of Spaceport America.

Soyuz Docks At ISS (Source: WESH)
An American, a Russian and a Malaysian cosmonaut have made it safely to the International Space Station and docked late Friday morning. American Peggy Whitson will be the first woman commander. The space shuttle Discovery will arrive at the ISS in two weeks if all stays on schedule, bringing up the third member of Whitson's crew.

Military Sats May Focus on U.S. Homes for Homeland Security (Source: LA Times)
The U.S. has a strong and well-founded aversion to the use of military force within its own borders. There have been exceptions -- President Eisenhower's deployment of the 101st Airborne to enforce desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., was perhaps the most vivid -- but for the most part the nation has prospered by the separation of its police and military, which has helped protect the public from suppression and the military from distraction. The underlying principle is enshrined in the Posse Comitatus Act, enacted soon after the Civil War and intended to bar the military from acting as a domestic police force.

But the "war on terror," which reaches inside American borders as well as outside, inevitably has caused some to ask whether the military should fight it at home too. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security, without so much as a phone call to Congress, has developed a program to draw on military surveillance satellites to help local police. Under the program as envisioned, police or sheriff's departments could request targets -- a suspected drug dealer's house, say. A National Applications Office in the Homeland Security Department would consider the requests and, on approval, attempt to deliver the information to local law enforcement, which it refers to as its "customers."

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Could Launch Lunar Landers (Source: Spaceports Blog)
Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is reviewing the possibility of supporting a NASA lunar lander using the Orbital Sciences' five stage Minotaur V launch vehicle in the near future. According to a briefing by NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director John H. Campbell to members of the Virginia Joint Commission on Science & Technology Aerospace Advisory Committee Tuesday at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility, such a lunar launch program from Virginia is desirable and feasible to achieve low cost lunar missions.

Space Club Honors Media/Public Affairs Officials (Source: NSF)
The Florida Committee of the National Space Club will hold its next monthly luncheon at the Doubletree Hotel in Cocoa Beach on Nov. 13. This event will feature the Harry Kolcum Memorial News & Communication Award, to be presented to two professionals responsible for exceptional media and public affairs work at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Contact LaDonna Netterer at mailto:ladonna.j.neterer@boeing.com to RSVP (by Nov. 8) and for information.