June 13 News Items

Florida Governor Orders 4 Percent Spending Holdback (Source: Florida Today)
Gov. Charlie Crist has ordered state agencies to hold back spending by 4 percent just as he did last year because he’s worried Florida’s tax revenue shortfalls will continue after the new budget year begins July 1. The holdback is just a precaution, Crist said. A day earlier he signed a $66 billion state budget, $5.5 billion less than the budget he signed a year ago. Florida has been hard hit by the depressed national economy, particularly the housing market, because it doesn’t have an income tax and relies heavily on sales and other consumption taxes. (6/13)

NASA Awards Constellation Technical Support Contract to Booz Allen (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. a contract for technical support services for the Constellation Program. The five-year contract has a base two-year value of $17.6 million, with a total potential value of $49.5 million if three one-year extension options are exercised. Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. will provide the resources to conduct tasks in support of the Constellation Program systems engineering and integration, and test and evaluation. Tasks include the definition, analysis, assessment, engineering study and documentation of operations concepts, technical and programmatic requirements and processes, and system implementations in support of NASA-led activities. (6/13)

Shuttle Retirement Will Hurt Florida's Space Coast (Source: AP)
In the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center, the countdown has begun in the towns that run on the space program's clock. Communities built up around Cape Canaveral figure to take a hobbling hit with the Space Shuttle retirement. There will be no more blastoffs by Atlantis, Discovery or Endeavour to pack hotels and viewing sites with tourists. Up to 6,400 of the 8,000 shuttle contractors in the area will lose their jobs. While Florida prepares for the loss, some other states could benefit. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where a guidance system for next-generation rockets will be developed, could gain 400 to 2,800 jobs. Visit http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080613-0430-spaceshuttletown.html to view the article. (6/13)

Florida Students Support Space Station Experiment (Source: FSGC)
Fourteen Florida high school students are preparing a protein crystal solution that will fly to the International Space Station along with private-sector space flyer Richard Garriott when he visits the Space Station in October. The students were part of a workshop in Alabama where they learned about aerospace biomedical research. Their participation was sponsored by the Florida Space Grant Consortium. "Rarely has a trip opened my eyes in the way this one has”, said Marisa Gedney of Eastside High School in Gainesville. (6/13)

Unidentified Object No Cause for Concern to Shuttle (Source: AFP)
An object seen floating behind the space shuttle Discovery could be a thermal clip whose loss would "not cause any concern" for the shuttle's landing Saturday, according to NASA officials. "You don't need it for entry and landing and there are three of them," William Jeffs, spokesman at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, told AFP. Astronauts had earlier reported seeing a bump on the shuttle's rudder but NASA said it was a normal protusion and no cause for concern. (6/13)

EU Space Governance Overhaul Urged (Source: Aerospace Daily)
A dedicated space budget line and a separate space directorate are among a growing chorus of recommendations aimed at changing the way the European Union (EU) manages its space activities. Currently, space projects are stewarded by several directorates within the EU's executive arm, the European Commission (EC), and there is no official arrangement for coordinating them. This setup helped lead to a meltdown in the system created to manage the Galileo satellite navigation system, and a similar breakdown is feared for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that the European Space Agency (ESA), which has been tasked with developing and procuring Galileo and GMES on the EC's behalf, has rules for procurement and industrial policy that differ from those at the EC, notably with respect to fair return and competition. In revamping the Galileo management setup at the end of last year, the Commission mandated that ESA change its policy to suit EC practice. (6/13)

India Looking to Develop Anti-Satellite Missile? (Source:
Although India is committed to peaceful use of outer space, but in addition to setting up space monitoring agency, India is exploring options of developing anti-satellite missile as a ’strategic deterrence’. In this effect the chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) talked about a possible collaboration with Department of Defense Research & Development (DRDO). Visit http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=135676 to view the article. (6/13)

Craig Technologies Wins National Guard Contract (Source: Craig Technologies)
In an effort to regulate card authorizations and screen questionable purchases, the Florida National Guard has contracted with Craig Technologies of Cape Canaveral to design and activate a computer-based tracking system for all of the government purchase cards used by every state unit. The Guard hopes to make the system an option for use by other National Guard states. (6/13)

Rocket Fuel as Cheap as a Bottle of Water (Source: NewIndPress)
A litre of rocket fuel that costs less than a bottle of bottled drinking water! India has begun research activities to make this a reality with a view to bringing down launch expenses. Scientists at ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Center have entered the second stage of a research program to gift the country with a semi-cryogenic fuel known as loxkerosene at a cost of less than Rs 15/kg.

The solid fuel that powers rockets costs about Rs 1500/kg. Lox-kerosene consists of refined kerosene and liquid oxygen. “The kerosene will cost about Rs 18/litre and liquid oxygen Rs 6/litre. A litre of lox-kerosene will cost only about Rs 12 to 15/litre,” sources said. (6/13)

New Mexico Spaceport Ballot Issue Fills Room (Source: Alamogordo Daily News)
The room was filled to the brim Thursday as both those in support and opposed to the Spaceport gross receipts tax anxiously waited their turns to speak before the Otero County Commission. But the issue, as explained by Otero County Commission Chair Doug Moore, is not a decision to pass the resolution and ordinance adopting the GRT itself, but merely the placing of it on the November ballot for voters to decide for themselves.

"We had three tax increases in one year," said Thomas McKean, one of the trustees for the village of Tularosa. "Why does our GRT have to support this? I highly recommend we do not pass this. I see no advantage at all." Visit http://www.alamogordonews.com/news/ci_9570943 to view the article. (6/13)