January 4 News Items

Virginia May Ask Congressional Delegation to Boost Spaceport (Source: Spaceports Blog)
The Virginia General Assembly may ask the Virginia Congressional delegation to flex more of its political muscle in gaining commercial space resupply missions to the International Space Station launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport this winter. A resolution supporting the utilization of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, a commercial launch facility owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia, may be filed next week in the House of Delegates.

The resolution would call upon Virginia's members of the Congress to direct NASA to contract for future use of the Wallops Island launch pads to resupply the space station. Virginia's Congressional delegation has given too little attention to the unique capabilities being provided by Virginia taxpayers despite three of its 11 House members serving on the House Appropriations Committee. A recent article in The Virginian-Pilot noted the growing interest in the spaceport by Virginia state legislators.

GAO Report Criticizes Export Licensing Process (Source: Space News)
The State Department's export licensing program is "under stress" and unlikely to improve unless the government makes substantial changes to the way licenses are processed, according to a Jan. 3 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). However, the program may improve as a result of process changes and two treaties currently being considered by the Bush administration and Congress. The Senate, which must ratify them, has received two draft treaties from the White House, one with Australia and one with Britain, that would reduce the burden of the licensing process on those close allies.

"The administration has taken the approach with the [...] treaties of taking 20 percent of the cases that are approved almost all of the time" and stripping them from the export licensing process, Jeremiah Gertler, said an AIA official. Also, two industry sources said the Bush administration appears close to approving the majority of process changes recommended by an industry group, the Coalition for Security and Competitiveness. The coalition recommended 19 changes to the process in March last year. None of the proposed changes require congressional action.

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.

Atlantis: Stuck on a Launch Pad for Another Month (Source: What's New)
There it sits like a monument to past glories, on the launchpad where it has been for a month. Maybe in another month they will get the fuel gauge working, but by then a Russian cargo ship may be blocking the docking port on the ISS. The aging shuttle was to have been launched on December 6. They still have 13 launches to go in the next two years to complete the ISS in time to abandon it on schedule.

Bill Puts COTS Selection in Limbo (Source: Space News)
NASA says it remains on track for a February selection of the space transport company it considers most deserving of the $175 million the agency is ready to spend to help the recipient demonstrate the delivery of cargo to the international space station. But whether NASA actually makes the award next month depends on circumstances largely beyond the agency's control. That is because the omnibus spending bill President signed on Dec. 26 contains a provision barring NASA from making a new award under its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program until it settles a dispute with one of the program's original awardees, Rocketplane Kistler of Oklahoma City.

Commercial Satellite Orders Expected to be Strong in 2008 (Source: Space News)
Nineteen geostationary-orbiting commercial telecommunications satellites were ordered worldwide in 2007, a decline from 2006's unusually rich harvest of 26 spacecraft but a result that industry officials say shows the continued health of the sector. Early indications are that 2008 should be at least as good a year, with high-definition television and satellite-delivered mobile communications buttressing the core market of satellites needed each year to replace operating spacecraft nearing the end of their service lives.

Commercial Firms Feeling Pressure to Get Launches on Track for 2008 (Source: Space News)
Launch failures occurring at two of the three principal commercial launch service companies in 2007 had a less-than-expected impact on the health of the commercial satellite sector but has placed more pressure on the launch companies to stick to their schedules in 2008. The January failure of a SeaLaunch rocket kept that vehicle out of service for more than nine months. When SeaLaunch was ready to return to flight, satellite delays and unusually rough subsurface ocean currents scuttled the company's attempts to launch late in the year.

Satellite Failure Sends Insurers Into the Red for 2007 (Source: Space News)
The likely failure of the Rascom-QAF1 satellite following a leak in its helium-pressurization tank will tip the 2007 financial ledgers of the world's space insurance underwriters into the red, according to insurance officials. While Rascom, launched Dec. 21, has not yet been declared a total loss, officials said there is little doubt that it will be soon, and that its owner will demand payment of the full insurance coverage of $365 million. When added to claims paid for three other satellite losses in 2007 (the NSS-8 satellite destroyed in a SeaLaunch failure, the JCSAT-11 satellite lost in a Proton failure, and the in-orbit loss of the GeoEye OrbView-3 satellite) total claims in 2007 are expected to be around $750 million. Total premiums paid for the year are estimated at between $550 million and $625 million.

Space insurance underwriters have had several years of healthy profitability, but the 2007 results will put upward pressure on insurance premiums, which have dropped substantially in the past five years. One official said the near-term evolution of insurance rates will depend on the early months of 2008, when a large number of insured telecommunications satellites are scheduled for launch.

After 38% Growth in 2007, Sirius Closes in on XM (Source: Space News)
Sirius Satellite Radio increased its subscriber base by 38 percent in 2007 to more than 8.3 million subscribers at year's end. The gains moved Sirius to within striking distance of its Washington-based competitor XM Satellite Radio, which at one time had more than triple the number of subscribers as Sirius. XM reported that it ended the year with a subscriber base of more than 8.5 million. Sirius in February 2007 agreed to acquire XM, but U.S. regulators have yet to approve the merger.

Editorial: NASA's Stalling on Aviation Study Raises Fear and Questions (Source: Denver Post)
The flying public still doesn't know whether to be concerned about safety in the skies or to take the word of NASA administrator Michael Griffin, who says the survey shouldn't be cause for worry. The only thing that is certain is that NASA did a poor job of handling the situation. This chain of events does not exactly inspire confidence in the judgment of the people who send astronauts into space.

Obama Clarifies His Space Policy (Source: Space Politics)
The Barack Obama campaign has been quiet about its space policy plans since the release of its education policy in November, which called for delaying the Constellation program for five years to help pay for its education initiatives. Lisa Ellman, Obama’s policy director in New Hampshire recently clarified the candidate's position. She said Obama “will work to strengthen American leadership in space” and that he “believes that the United States needs a strong space program to help it maintain its superiority not only in space, but here on earth in the realms of education, technology, and national security.” Most importantly, Ellman clarifies what Obama meant by delaying Constellation by five years:

Obama believes we should continue developing the next generation of space vehicles, and complete the international space station. While Obama would delay plans to return to Moon and push on to Mars, Obama would continue unmanned missions, and use NASA to monitor the forces and effects of climate change, support scientific research, and maintain surveillance to strengthen national security. Obama also believes we need to keep weapons out of space.

That is considerably different than what his original statement sounded like: rather than an additional five-year post-shuttle gap, this approach would appear to permit the continued development of a new launch vehicle and spacecraft (be it Ares/Orion or some alternative), but put on hold anything that would be used for lunar missions and beyond. That puts his approach closer to what Hillary Clinton proposed in October, although she did not endorse any specific delay in human lunar missions. Visit http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/01/02/obama-clarifies-his-space-policy/ to view the article.

Wallops Averts Strike, Reaching Deal (Source: DelMarVaNow.com)
All 77 operations maintenance workers who operate the NASA Wallops Flight Facility are back on the job after voting to strike Jan. 1. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2552, based out of Wallops Island, avoided the strike by approving a four-year package Dec. 31, 2007, after concessions on health and pension benefits were made, said a union representative. About 300 workers at Wallops are members of IAMAW 2552, but they work under nearly 10 different contracts, such as security and Near-Earth Network data services. The strike would have affected 77 facilities members.

California Congressman Introduces Space Prize Legislation (Source: SpaceRef.com)
California Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has introduced H.R. 4916, the "Aeronautics and Space Prize Act", to create a National Endowment to advance private sector development of aeronautics and space technologies by way of the National Advanced Space and Aeronautical Technologies Prize Award Program. One objective of the bill is to "execute a program awarding cash prizes in recognition of outstanding private sector achievements in basic, advanced, and applied research, technology development, and prototype demonstration that have the potential for application to the Nation's aeronautics and space endeavors" within NASA and other government and non-government organizations.

Lockheed Martin Gears Up for Orion Craft Development in Texas (Source: Friendswood Journal)
Lockheed Martin officially opened its new space Exploration Development Laboratory recently, dedicating the facility to support NASA's Constellation Program and unveiling a full-scale mockup of the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Orion, America's taxi to the International Space Station and the moon, looks very much like the Apollo spacecraft but is considerably larger so it can carry six astronauts to and from the space station and up to four to the moon and destinations beyond. It is 16 1/2 feet in diameter and weighs almost 31,000 pounds. The new 10,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art lab was funded by Lockheed Martin and its partners, United Space Alliance and Honeywell, as part of a lab network that includes facilities in Arlington, Va., Denver, Colo., and Glendale, Ariz.

NASA Delays Atlantis Launch to Late January (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA on Thursday settled on a strategy to fix a fuel gauge problem on the shuttle Atlantis, which could have the ship ready to lift off to the space station as soon as Jan. 24. John Shannon, NASA's deputy shuttle program manager, characterized the Jan. 24 date as an optimistic target and outlined weather obstacles and other issues that could delay the launch into early February. "I would say it will be a stretch to think we will make Jan. 24. That would require the weather to cooperate. It would require no hitches in any of the testing," Shannon said. "I think it's much more likely we will be ready to go in the Feb. 2 to Feb. 7 time frame."

The delays encountered by the Atlantis mission will, in turn, force a postponement of a Feb. 14 launch of the first component of the Japanese lab. While the timing of that flight has not been fully assessed, it would take place about five weeks after Atlantis' departure, Shannon said.