December 17 News Items

NASA's Voyager 2 Hits Solar System Edge (Source: Space News)
NASA's Voyager 2 proved the solar system is shaped asymmetrically as it journeyed to its edge, a Dec. 10 NASA press release said. Voyager 2 passed into the outer layer of the solar system at a different distance than Voyager 1, Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, said. The solar system is surrounded by a bubble-like barrier called the heliosphere. The solar wind termination shock marks the heliosphere's outer edge, or heliosheath, where the solar wind slows and increases in density as it starts mixing with interstellar gas, Stone said. Caltech manages NASA's Pasadena-based Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built both Voyager craft.

Weldon to Debut Plan for Shuttle (Source: Florida Today)
U.S. Rep. David Weldon today will outline legislation to extend shuttle flights beyond the scheduled 2010 retirement. Weldon, a Republican whose district is home to thousands of space workers, will announce his plan at 1 p.m. at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. President Bush has ordered the shuttles retired in 2010 and directed NASA to develop new rockets and spaceships to carry astronauts to the moon. The policy, however, limits NASA to its current funding plus inflation, so a new fleet won't fly until at least 2015. Weldon has said he does not want the Chinese and Russians to be the only countries capable of launching humans to space for five years or more. Visit http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=26293 to view the language proposed by Dr. Weldon.

Brazil, Argentina Launch Space Rocket (Source: AP)
Brazil and Argentina successfully launched a rocket into space on Sunday in the first joint space mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state. The rocket reached an altitude of 75 miles and its journey — which lasted 9 minutes, 25 seconds — was considered "perfect," the agency said. The mission was the fruit of a 1998 accord between space agencies in Brazil, which has launched rockets into space before, and Argentina, which has relied on other nations to send up satellites.

Satellite Data Helps Advance Solar, Wind Power (Source: LA Times)
Maps compiled by U.S. and European satellites have allowed NASA to locate the world's sunniest places. The research could help locate sites for offshore wind farms. "In the developed world, we have good surface solar measurements. When you go elsewhere, the data is much sparser. That's where the satellites can help," said Richard Eckman, manager of NASA's Langley Research Center.

Weldon Proposes $10 Billion to Keep Shuttle Flying (Source: Florida Today)
U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon is seeking to inject an extra $10 billion into NASA's budget over the next five years to eliminate the gap between the space shuttle and its proposed replacement. His plan would add two space shuttle missions per year in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The plan also would accelerate development of the Ares rockets and Orion crew exploration vehicle so they would be ready to fly around 2013, after the last shuttle flight. Weldon says the goal is to make sure the United States continues to have a way to launch people to space, rather than going at least five years without such a capability.

"I know this is an uphill battle," Weldon said. "The money is there. This is an issue of priorities." Weldon is introducing the legislation as soon as possible. One option is to make it part of the ongoing conference committee negotiations between House and Senate leaders trying to finalize the current year's federal budget. Weldon has not spelled out what the space shuttle missions would do, but rather that the program continue flying. He said he agrees that the space shuttle needs to be retired. However, he said, "we need a soft landing."