June 28 News Items

Russian-U.S. Launch Firm to Launch Satellite in August (Source: RIA Novosti)
The Russian-American joint venture International Launch Services (ILS) has started preparations for the first launch of a Proton-M rocket since one partially failed in March, the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said Friday. A company review on June 16 cleared the Proton Breeze M to return to flight this summer following a failure during the March 15 launch of the U.S. AMC-14 satellite from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan. The satellite was inserted into a lower-than-planned orbit. (6/27)

Tiny Defect Delays SpaceX's Falcon 1 Launch Again (Source: Space News)
A tiny weld defect discovered in one of the Falcon 1's engine nozzles as the rocket was being readied for a late June launch contributed to a SpaceX decision to postpone its third attempt to put the rocket into orbit by at least a month. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, said the defect was so tiny - about a tenth of millimeter - that it passed inspection before shipment and was unlikely to cause a problem during launch.

"By our calculations and by our tests that should be safe for flight," Musk said. "However, in the interest of paranoia we are going to change the nozzle." He said the weld defect was discovered at the launch site in mid-June just prior to Falcon 1's stages being mated together in preparation for rolling the rocket out to the pad. Explaining the decision to fall back to a window that runs July 29 to Aug. 6, SpaceX said the South Pacific launch range would be closed for the U.S. Fourth of July holiday and resume operations July 24. (6/27)

Lockheed Gets $1.4 Billion EELV Launch Contract (Source: Reuters)
Lockheed Martin has received a $1.38 billion U.S. Air Force contract modification to extend government and military launch services through September 30, 2009. The deal also incorporates a one-year option for fiscal 2010. (6/27)

States Pursue New USAF Cyber Command (Sources: California Chronicle, Space News)
A California bill passed its final legislative test last week, getting unanimous, bi-partisan support for a new military command in Northern California. The final vote for SCR 117 demonstrates the State Legislature´s unanimous support for Beale Air Force Base in Yuba County to be the best and only choice to host the Air Force's Cyber Command Operations. SCR 117 stresses the advantages of Beale, the size of the base, its location and the ability to expand to take on new responsibilities.

Maj. Gen. William Lord, commander of the provisional Cyber Command that has been established at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, said the headquarters could be a small operation focused on leveraging manpower and expertise from other Air Force organizations. Lord noted that he has been lobbied by officials from a variety of states interested in hosting the new command. Air Force Secretary Mike Wynne said he had been lobbied by Tim Murray, the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Wynne described Murray's case as compelling, given the information technology expertise in the state.

The USAF recently announced its intention to establish Cyber Command as a new operation to conduct cyber warfare, electronic warfare and effectively protect critical United States infrastructure networks that support telecommunications systems. The new command could create hundreds of Air Force personnel to Yuba and Sutter Counties, creating thousands of private sector jobs and new businesses to support the new mission. The U.S. Air Force is expected to pick a permanent location in the near future for its Cyber Command, but the host state may not see a major influx of personnel and infrastructure, according to the command's top official. (6/26)

Three California Universities Receive Space Biomedical Grants (Source: CSA)
NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have selected a group of research proposals to help investigate questions of astronaut health and performance on future space exploration missions. Science and technical experts from academia and government laboratories reviewed more than 120 proposals before selecting 33 winners covering 12 states and representing 21 institutions, listed below. Three of the projects are led by California universities, including University of California, San Diego, (Clearance of Particles Depositing in the Human Lung in Low Gravity); University of California, Irvine (Integrated Endurance and Resistance Exercise Countermeasures Using a Gravity-Independent Training Device); and University of California, Los Angeles (A Multi-Media, Computer-Based, Self-Directed, Autonomous, Stress and Anxiety Management Countermeasure). (6/19)

Air Force/Lockheed Martin SBIRS Team Completes On-Orbit Payload Checkout (Source: CSA)
A joint U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin team has successfully completed on-orbit checkout of the second Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO-2) payload in the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) constellation. SBIRS is designed to provide early warning of missile launches, and simultaneously support other missions including missile defense, technical intelligence and battlespace characterization. Equipped with a sophisticated scanning sensor, the HEO-2 payload joins the first HEO payload, which continues to perform with outstanding results as it is readied to begin on-orbit operations for the user later this year. (6/20)

Proton Launches Russian Military Satellite (Source: SpaceToday.net)
A Russian Proton rocket launched a military satellite early Friday, the first Proton launch since a failure in March. The Proton K rocket lifted off from the Baikonur spaceport and placed the Kosmos 2440 satellite into a geosynchronous orbit. Few details about the spacecraft were released, other than its mass, about 2,600 kilograms; various reports have described it as either a communications or missile warning satellite. The launch was the first for the Proton since a March 15 commercial launch, when an upper stage failure stranded its payload in a useless transfer orbit. The Proton is expected to return to commercial service later this summer. (6/28)

Mysteries of Time, and the Multiverse (Source: Los Angeles Times)
In his studies of entropy and the irreversibility of time, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll is exploring the idea that our universe is part of a larger structure. Most physical laws work equally well going backward or forward, yet time flows only in one direction. Carroll suggests that entropy, the tendency of physical systems to become more disordered over time, plays a crucial role. Visit http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-carroll28-2008jun28,0,1685613.story to view the article. (6/28)

Hawking 'Close' to Explaining Universe's Inflation (Source: New Scientist)
Why was the big bang so very big? It has been a struggle to explain why the infant universe expanded so rapidly. But now Stephen Hawking at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues, think they are close to perfecting an answer - by treating the early cosmos as a quantum object with a multitude of alternative universes that gradually blend into ours.

The idea that the universe expanded at a blistering rate in the first 10-34 seconds after the big bang was proposed to explain why regions of the universe separated by vast distances have such a similar background temperature: before inflation occurred, these regions would have been close together with similar properties. But just why the universe inflated in the first place remains a mystery. Visit http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19826624.300 to view the article. (6/28)

Using Falcon Rocket, NASA to Attempt Historic Solar Sail Deployment (Source: NASA)
NASA researchers, thinking "out of the box" (or maybe "out of the rocket") have long dreamed of the possibility of sailing among the planets with sails propelled by sunlight instead of by wind. No one has yet successfully deployed such a sail anywhere beyond Earth. A NASA team hopes to make history this summer by deploying a solar sail called NanoSail-D. It will travel to space onboard a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, scheduled for launch during a window extending from July 29th to August 6th. (6/27)