November 24 News Items

EU Reaches Agreement on Galileo Funding (Source: SpaceToday.net)
European Union member nations reached an agreement late Friday to fund the Galileo satellite navigation system after resolving concerns by one major nation about the distribution of contracts. EU finance ministers agreed to a proposal first announced this fall to use €2.4 billion (US$3.5 billion) in unspent agricultural subsidies on Galileo, filling a shortfall created when previous efforts to create a public-private partnership that would have paid for most of Galileo fell through. Germany had raised objections to the proposal both because of the precedent created by transferring unspent funds from one program to another as well as concerns that a single company could dominate the contracts that will be awarded for the system. EU officials did agree to divide the development of Galileo into six contracts and prohibit any one company from winning more than two of them. Germany still voted against the proposal, according to reports, but welcomed the revised bidding plan.

Space Race for a New Century (Source: Tampa Tribune)
President Bush wants Americans to walk on the moon again ten years from now, and even wants astronauts to go onto Mars. Yet with the Shuttle program winding down just over two years from now, Florida is worried about a new missle gap. The new rockets won't be ready for four years, so there are jobs on the line—high tech, high paying jobs at Kennedy Space Center that Florida doesn't want to lose. There are also jobs in the Tampa Bay area, at Honeywell and other space contractors, jobs that Governor Charlie Crist is fighting to keep. "It's an economic impact issue," Crist said. "It really is, and the Shuttle program will phase out in 2010, and I want to make sure we are doing everything we can to transit to the next mission, which is to begin in 2014, but I just got a briefed it might be earlier."

Earlier depends on more money from Congress in a presidential election year fraught with debate over the cost of war and a sputtering economy. It also depends on the next President. Among all the candidates, only Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney support the Bush plan. Political history would not seem to be on NASA's side. President John F. Kennedy of course, launched the great space race in the 60s, but once Kennedy's goal was realized, President Richard Nixon killed the moon program, blaming the economy and the cost of the Vietnam war. But what price international prestige, and leadership in space? Enter the Chinese—just last month they orbited the moon, and they have plans to land astronauts there. The question then becomes: could another space race save NASA?