November 4 News Items

Station To-Do List Daunting (Source: Florida Today)
Spacewalking astronauts executed daring repairs on a high-voltage solar wing at the International Space Station on Saturday, setting the stage for a time-critical series of demanding encores. Three dangerous spacewalks and two difficult crane operations must be accomplished at the outpost before the planned Dec. 6 launch of Atlantis and the long-delayed European Columbus science laboratory. NASA has a seven-day window to get the mission off the ground before it would have to push it back to 2008. "My guess is that we might not make Dec. 6, but we're going to give it a good go," NASA program manager Mike Suffredini said. "We have a good chance at having several attempts, and that's outstanding news."

Power from Space? (Source: Technology Review)
"Can the United States and partners enable the development and deployment of a space-based solar power system within the first half of the 21st Century such that if constructed could provide affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable, and expandable energy for its consumers?" That's the fundamental question the National Security Space Office (NSSO) asked in an online collaborative forum that included 170 academic, scientific, technical, legal, and business experts from around the world. The discussion took place over a five-month period, during which the NSSO gathered and organized information pertaining to the feasibility of space-based solar.

The study concluded "that while the business case for SBSP cannot be closed for construction to begin in 2007, the technical feasibility of the concept has never been better and all science and technology development vectors appear to indicate that there is credible potential for SBSP to be built within a strategically relevant period of time."

India Plans Reusable Launch Vehicles (Source: The Hindu)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to flight test a Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator in December 2008. This is part of an effort to develop reusable launch vehicles that would slash launch costs. Worldwide, the current cost of access to space works out to $20,000 per kilogram. The hope was that this cost could be brought down to $200 or $500 per kilogram.

Wernher von Braun's Nazi Past Haunted his Work (Source: Kansas.com)
At the height of his celebrity, rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was the subject of a 1960 Hollywood biopic, "I Aim for the Stars." But the moral ambiguity of his career was devastatingly captured by comic Mort Sahl, who joked that the movie's subtitle should read, "But Sometimes I Hit London." Von Braun was a household name to Americans during the NASA glory days of the 1960s. The charming, erudite German was frequently featured on TV and in magazine articles, extolling the wonders and possibilities of space travel. But Von Braun the American space hero was shadowed by a darker Nazi past as a developer of the German V2 rocket that terrorized London and Antwerp during World War II, killing thousands.

Moreover, the underground Nazi factory where the rockets were assembled employed the slave labor of concentration camp prisoners, many of whom died under appalling, abusive conditions. But at the end of the war he quickly embraced American life and became a tireless promoter of his dream -- manned space travel. Still, his career as a (mostly reluctant, it seems) Nazi shadowed him for the rest of his life and always threatened to break into the open, embarrassing him and the U.S. space program. Von Braun, while expressing regret for his association with the Hitler regime, always argued that he never had any direct experience of the rocket factory war crimes. That may be true. But as author Michael Neufeld shows, he almost certainly knew that they were taking place.

SpaceX Breaks Ground at Cape Canaveral Spaceport for Falcon 9 Rockets (Source: SpaceX)
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) held official ground breaking ceremonies at Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, opening a new era in commercial space operations. SLC-40 will be the primary launch site for SpaceX’s new Falcon 9 launch vehicle, with operations beginning in late 2008. Located on the Florida coast, just south of NASA’s launch site for all Apollo moon missions and Space Shuttle flights, SLC-40 is a world class heavy lift launch facility, capable of supporting both the Falcon 9 and future Falcon 9 Heavy missions. “Initiating activities at the Cape in Florida is a major milestone in our mission to decrease the cost of reliable access to space,” said Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX. In the coming months, SpaceX will perform extensive upgrades and removal of outdated infrastructure to transform the site into a state of the art facility for commercial satellite launches, supply missions to the International Space Station (ISS), and eventually lofting crew carrying missions to the ISS and future orbiting destinations.

Striking Space Workers OK New Contract (Source: Florida Today)
Striking United Space Alliance workers have ratified a new three-year contract 313-75. Workers will return to work by Thursday, according to Bob Wood, a spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2061. About 90 percent of the union members showed up at the Radisson Conference Center in Cape Canaveral to vote, he said. The result is not a great contract, Wood said, but it's better than what they started out with five months ago. "This contract was substandard to every other contract" at the Cape, Wood said. "We were trying to bring it up. It remains substandard."

Negotiators worked late into the night all week to get better language and benefits for workers, Wood said. Notably, they got changes in the pension plan for current workers. Health care benefits, however, remained unchanged from the original offer, he said. "Our workers pay more than any other workers at the base," Wood said. Visit http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071104/BREAKINGNEWS/71104008 to view the article.