December 31 News Items

Round Up: Presidential Candidates Talk Space (Source: Space.com)
Space exploration has become a topic of interest in U.S. presidential debates for the first time in over 40 years. Seventeen individuals are running for president in the two major parties' primaries. Several of them have expressed opinions about space; but most, to our knowledge, have not spoken directly about space, or addressed it at all. Visit http://www.space.com/news/071231-candidate-positions.html to view statements from the candidates and/or their campaigns.

Where the Candidates Stand on Space (Source: Space Review)
Later this week the first official contest of the 2008 presidential campaign will finally take place when the Iowa caucuses are held on Thursday, followed next Tuesday by the New Hampshire primaries. The “finally” sounds a little ironic given that these elections are occurring earlier than ever in modern election history, but many of the candidates have been on the road in those states, among others, since at least the November 2006 Congressional elections, if not earlier. The current political situation—no incumbent or clear heir apparent running for either party—has created a wide-open, high-stakes atmosphere on the campaign trail. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1028/1 to view the article.

How to Tell Your ORS from a Hole in the Ground (Source: Space Review)
The idea lends itself perfectly to the kind of technofantasies that one typically sees in articles written by military officers who have read too much Tom Clancy: a tank battalion commander, charging through the desert, needs to know what is ahead of him. So he puts in a call to headquarters and within minutes a C-17 cargo plane flying over the ocean drops a large rocket from its cargo bay. The rocket is pulled vertical by a parachute, fires, and within minutes injects a small reconnaissance satellite in orbit that flies over the battlefield, beaming the images straight down to a display screen in the commander’s vehicle. The basic idea of "Operationally Responsive Space" (ORS) has been around for a long time in various forms. Ever since the beginning of the space age military officers have sought to make satellites more directly responsive to military missions. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1027/1 to view the article.

President Signs NASA Budget Bill (Source: SpaceToday.net)
NASA President Bush on Wednesday signed an appropriations bill that gives NASA almost exactly what the White House requested for the agency in 2008, but without extra funds that the Senate had previously endorsed. The omnibus appropriations bill, which includes money for a wide range of non-military programs, gives NASA $17.3 billion for fiscal year 2008, which started on October 1. That overall amount is the same as what the Bush Administration requested when it submitted its budget in February; the final bill includes slightly more for science and aeronautics programs, offset by reductions in exploration programs. The final bill also includes a provision inserted by Congress that prevents NASA from spending any money on programs directly linked to human exploration of Mars.

India Saw String of Successes (Source: Deccan Herald)
In the year gone by, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) achieved self-reliance in launch vehicle technology with the successful ground testing of the Cryogenic Upper Stage, a key component in putting heavier payloads in orbit. Capping a string of successes in 2007 in space research, India is poised to take a giant leap forward in the new year with the launch of its maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I, a feat achieved by a few nations. 2008 will also see India taking first steps towards putting a man in space. Space scientists also accomplished the feat of bringing back a spacecraft to earth and was developing a rocket to put four-ton satellites in orbit.

A Cold, Hard Look at One of Science's Hottest Mysteries (Source: Chicago Tribune)
Anywhere on Earth this would be a big telescope, as high as a seven-story building, with a main mirror measuring 32 1/2 feet across. But here at the South Pole, it seems especially large, looming over a barren plain of ice that gets colder than anywhere else on the planet. Scientists built the instrument at the end of the world so they can search for clues that might identify the most powerful, plentiful but elusive substance in the universe -- dark energy. Visit http://www.spacetoday.net/getarticle.php3?id=113137 to view the article.

NASA Soars in Space, Stumbles on Ground (Source: Florida Today)
Up, down and strange. That's the kind of year it was for NASA in 2007. It started with the felony arrest in February of a NASA astronaut on attempted kidnapping charges and included a murder-suicide at Johnson Space Center in Houston. A train carrying highly flammable shuttle booster segments derailed on its way to Kennedy Space Center in early May, and there were unsubstantiated allegations in July of heavy drinking by astronauts before launch. And there was an astounding recovery from a violent act of nature -- a freak hailstorm that severely damaged an external tank on shuttle Atlantis. Visit http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071229/NEWS02/712290323/1007 to view the article.

Lofty Goals, Missions Afar Will Cram Space Agenda (Source: Florida Today)
The coming year is going to be a full one on Florida's Space Coast. There will be a construction boom that will triple the size of the International Space Station. Then there are the missions to Mercury, the moon and Mars. There will be 16 rocket launches. In addition, there will be a half-dozen NASA shuttle flights, including a fifth and final servicing call on the Hubble Space Telescope.

If all the scheduled shuttle launches occur this year, they would be at a rate not seen since before the 2003 Columbia accident. "We have an ambitious goal ahead of us," NASA shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said. "But I believe it's achievable." Visit http://www.flatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071230/NEWS02/712300333/1007 to preview the five big space stories to be looking for in 2008.

Lloyd's Insurers Consider Coverage for Commercial Space Flights (Source: Insurance Journal)
A bulletin on the Lloyd's web site notes that the State of New Mexico and Virgin Galactic recently announced plans to construct a "multi-million pound spaceport." As a result Lloyd's brokers and underwriters have indicated that "there is capacity in the market to provide insurance cover for the commercial flights, if underwriters are convinced about their level of exposure to passenger liabilities." Lloyd's says the vehicles aren't the main coverage problem, but the "prospect of space vessels filled with high net worth passengers could prove more difficult to place." Visit http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2007/12/28/85967.htm to view the article.

European Consortium Plans Suborbital Vehicle (Source: SpaceFellowship.com)
Project Enterprise is an all European consortium developing a sub-orbital space vehicle. The vehicle will be a single-stage suborbital spaceplane. A Swiss, German, and Austrian industrial group says it is developing a two- to five-passenger vehicle powered by three liquid oxygen/kerosene rocket engines. The flight will take one hour, rumours suggest it will launch horizontally accelerating to mach 3 to an altitude of 80km, at this point the engines will be cut off and the vehicle would coast to 130km. Passengers would experience 5min of weightlessness before the vehicle then re-entered the atmosphere and glided back to land at its take-off runway. Visit http://spacefellowship.com/News/?p=4096 to view the article.

Russia Predicts Death of Space Travel After 2009 (Source: Ruissia InfoCentre)
Sending space tourists to the International Space Station using Russian spaceships may become problematic after 2009, according to the head of the Russian Space Agency (RSA). This is because of an agreement signed by the member countries (including Russia) of the International Space Station program. According to the agreement, if Japan and Europe launch scientific multipurpose modules, crews of the International Space Station must consist of 6 people. In this case there will be no free places left for tourists of the Russian rockets.

NASA Expected to Release Pilot Survey (Source: Space News)
NASA expected to release results Monday from an $11.3 million federal air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. The research conducted over four years shows that safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than previously recognized.

USAF To Issue Draft Solicitation for Military Space Sensor System (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force plans to issue a draft solicitation early next month for an effort to develop sensors that can be placed on military satellites to warn of potential attacks, according to a Dec. 26 posting on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) Web site.

RpK Says It Won't Take NASA to Court Over COTS Dispute (Source: Space News)
Rocketplane Kistler (RpK) has backed off its threat to sue NASA for withdrawing financial support of the K-1 reusable rocket the Oklahoma City-based company was developing under the U.S. space agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to deliver supplies and eventually astronauts to the international space station.

PlanetSpace Gains Momentum for NASA Space Delivery (Source: IndiaWest.com)
The Christmas and New Year season is usually a time to kick back from work. That is not the case for the management at Chicago-based PlanetSpace, which, like a nervous graduate student, is burning the midnight oil to prepare for an oral presentation to NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program in early January. The company is one of several bidders for a $174.7-million contract to “flight demonstrate cargo and crew delivery capability” to re-supply NASA’s International Space Station. As a prime contractor, PlanetSpace has added some heavyweights to its team, company chairman and co-founder Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria told India-West recently.