June 22 News Items

Vandenberg-Launched Satellite Could Improve Hurricane Prediction (Source: Santa Barbara Independent)
Because the world’s oceans absorb heat and are a regulator of global climate, Jason 2 includes sea surface temperature instrumentation in addition to the altimeter that helps it determine sea level height. While monitoring the ocean’s surface for tsunamis is beyond the capability of Jason 2—a vast array of satellites would be needed to provide complete and constant coverage of the ocean’s surface—scientists are hopeful that the improved technology in the new satellite will enable more accurate hurricane prediction. (6/22)

Can the Martian Arctic Support Extreme Life? (Source: AP)
Bizarre microbes flourish in the most punishing environments on Earth from the bone-dry Atacama Desert in Chile to the boiling hot springs of Yellowstone National Park to the sunless sea bottom vents in the Pacific. Could such exotic life emerge in the frigid arctic plains of Mars? NASA's Phoenix spacecraft could soon find out. There hasn't been a eureka moment yet. Scientists hope experiments by the lander will reveal whether the local ice has ever melted and whether there are any organic, or carbon-containing, compounds. The discovery of extreme life forms, known as extremophiles, in unexpected nooks and crannies of the Earth in recent years has helped inform scientists in their search for extraterrestrial life. (6/22)

Ecuador Boy Sets Zero-G Flight Record (Sources: NASA Watch, AP)
A 7-year-old Ecuador boy has become the youngest passenger ever aboard a zero-gravity flight. Jules Nader says he wasn't scared during the four minutes of weightlessness he experienced aboard an air force plane. He told The Associated Press on Friday that he felt "like Spider-Man." Nader's 10-year-old brother Gerard also made the flight, which was aboard an Ecuadorian air force plane in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on June 19. (6/21)

Job Loss Hearing Set for Monday (Source: Florida Today)
Resigned to losing about 6,400 high-paying space shuttle jobs in the next three years, Brevard County economic boosters will participate in a Senate field hearing Monday to help Florida's congressional leaders try to minimize the impact. The hearing was organized by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, chairman of the Senate subcommittee overseeing NASA. Nelson wants to focus more attention on what happens after the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. He is using the hearing to pressure NASA to come up with more details about the expected job losses and give local leaders an opportunity to suggest ways to generate replacement jobs.

"Sen. Nelson wants to hear from NASA whether they have any plans in place to help mitigate the (job) losses," said Bryan Gulley, a Nelson spokesman. "He wants to know (if they are) planning on transferring any work to Kennedy Space Center to help minimize those losses." "We know the (space) industry is changing," said Lynda Weatherman, president of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Cost. "We know a transition is taking place. If we work together, we can nullify the gaps. We have ideas and suggestions." (6/22)

Editorial: A Hopeful Sign (Source: Florida Today)
We've long advocated that support for America's space program should transcend party lines and boosting NASA's plan to return to the moon was a perfect fit for bipartisan backing. In a hopeful sign, that's what happened in Congress a few days ago when House members voted an overwhelming 409-15 to increase the agency's budget to $20.2 billion for fiscal year 2009. That's $2 billion more than President Bush has requested. Space Coast GOP Congressman Tom Feeney deserves credit for helping lead the charge that brought the increase. And he's right in saying it shows members are coming to understand the danger in allowing NASA's manned space effort to languish for at least five years after the shuttles stop flying in 2010.

This fight, however, is far from over. The increase faces an uncertain fate in the Senate and Bush says he'll veto the bill if it passes. However, it sends a strong message to the next president that the space program is important to America and must have strong support. (6/22)

NASA Remains Silent on Rocket that Could Rescue the Cape (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
It's the rocket NASA won't talk about -- but proponents insist it could change everything. If built, they say, it could get America back on the moon faster and cheaper than anything NASA is designing -- and save thousands of jobs in Florida. It's called Direct 2.0, or the Jupiter 120 rocket. The simplicity of its design (using more Space Shuttle infrastructure and components than would Ares-1 and Ares-5), and the possibility that it could shave years off a projected five-year gap in U.S. human spaceflight once the shuttle retires in 2010, is gaining Direct a growing following among engineers and space enthusiasts -- including NASA workers who are secretly helping the project on their own time. Adherents say it could fly by 2013 for less than the projected cost of NASA's Ares rocket.

Indeed, an unfinished internal NASA study -- shut down and disowned by the agency last fall -- showed Direct 2.0 would outperform Ares, which the agency is designing for its Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon. The initial results showed Direct 2.0 was superior in cost, overall performance and work-force retention -- a big issue for Florida. However, NASA is working to stifle debate about alternatives such as Direct, pooh-poohing supporters' claims and warning Congress that any move to abandon Ares risks grounding the U.S. space program for decades. Visit http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-rocket2208jun22,0,6150021.story to view the article. (6/22)

Sarkozy Faces Uphill Battle to Boost Military Space Spending (Source: Space News)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's June 17 call for "a massive investment" in space-based intelligence faces stiff resistance in France and an uncertain reception by France's European partners, French government and industry officials said. Opposition on either front could be lethal for the proposals, they added. Sarkozy is calling for no real increase in defense spending. Instead, space-based assets would be financed from savings resulting from cuts in the number of French military personnel and the closure of unneeded military bases in France. In Europe, the reaction of Germany and Italy will be key to determining whether satellites for missile detection and radar and electronics eavesdropping will be built. (6/22)

Wynne Says U.S. Air Force Must Review Procurement Approach (Source: Space News)
On his last day in office, U.S. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said the service needs to rethink its procurement strategies — in space and other systems — and perhaps make them less complicated. "We've got to get away from the 'Battlestar Galacticas' and we've got to go back to simpler mission satellites," Wynne said. One way to do that is to take advantage of opportunities to put military payloads aboard commercial satellites, a concept known as hosted payloads, Wynne said. (6/22)

Spacehab Eyes Biomedical Research Aboard Space Station (Source: Space News)
For years scientists had to beg for access to the space shuttle to conduct microgravity research, until a well-timed salmonella discovery helped cinch a spot for Spacehab Inc. on all but one of the shuttle's remaining scheduled flights. Amid growing concern about salmonella outbreaks and an increase in the bacteria's resistance to existing medicine, Spacehab sent a second round of salmonella vaccine research to the space station May 31. Previous tests have shown salmonella is more virulent in microgravity, although scientists are not sure why.

Spacehab will take the results of a recent spaceflight salmonella project to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in hopes the agency will allow Spacehab to begin human trials of a salmonella vaccine by October. Spacehab a list of 20 other infectious diseases to send to the space station for vaccine research. On each of 10 upcoming shuttle flights, Spacehab will send between eight and 16 of its Group Activation Packs — polycarbonate cylinders containing eight 114-millimeter test tubes. With the turn of a handle, an astronaut will release bacteria-eating worms and growth nutrients from one end of each test tube to mix with disease-causing bacteria in a separate compartment at the other end of the tube.

In May, Spacehab established a subsidiary, BioSpace Technolgies Inc., for its biotechnology research. The company, headed by Royston for now, hired as its chief science officer Jeanne Becker, vice president and associate director of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Houston. Spacehab's efforts have drawn support from the state of Florida. The state's space arm, Space Florida, has committed $90,000 to the salmonella project, and Steve Kohler, president of Space Florida, plans to ask his board to approve $210,000 more. (6/22)

Emergency Spending Bill Adds $62.5 Million for NASA (Source: Space News)
NASA stands to receive an extra $62.5 million for 2008 if U.S. President George W. Bush signs into law the $162 billion emergency spending measure the U.S. House of Representatives passed June 19 to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and miscellaneous domestic priorities. The emergency spending measure had included $200 million for NASA when it was approved by the Senate in May. But the House cut the NASA money by $137.5 million and stripped many other Senate-backed domestic spending provisions in order to complete a bill Bush would be willing to sign. (6/22)