August 21 News Items

NASA Ames Awards Contract for Engineering Support (Source: NASA)
NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., Thursday awarded a cost plus fixed fee indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity task order contract valued at $42 million to ASRC Research and Technology Solutions (ARTS), of Greenbelt, Md. ARTS is a Alaskan Native Corporation under the Small Business Administration 8(a) Business Development Program that will provide engineering, design and fabrication services for the center. (8/21)

Editorial: Running in Place on Space Station (Source: The Republican)
You can't get there from here. Not without a Russian rocket, that is. There is, of course, no way to predict what our relationship with Russia will be like a couple of years down the road. But even if it has gotten pretty smooth, if Russia has found a way to contain its worst impulses, there is no way to know how long that will last. The United States must not put itself in the position of paying Russia - potentially very hefty sums - to ferry our people and our stuff to and from the international space station.

And this is without even beginning to consider that they could easily blackmail us if they were to become the only space-taxi service in the world. So, what are the alternatives? Well, giving up on the space station is one - and it's beginning to look better and better. This page has long supported NASA and the space program. We will continue to do so. However, that does not mean that we will back every effort, no matter what. It's high time to admit that the space station has come to a whole lot of nothing - and just call it quits. We have gone into space to study being in space. OK. Whatever. (8/21)

America’s Space Efforts Are Being Hampered by Politics (Source: Economist)
International space rivalries are about more than bragging rights. The rockets that carry space-bound payloads are close relatives of the intercontinental missiles that carry enemy-bound warheads. And satellites furnish information and communications to soldier and civilian alike. So it is only natural for America, now the leader in space, to try to protect its dominance and prevent weapons proliferating by controlling the export of its space technology. Yet rarely has such a reasonable aim been so self-defeating.

The system of export controls, known as ITAR, is managed with almost comic zeal by the State Department. Anything that is part of a satellite assembly needs vetting—even if it is as common as a lithium-ion battery, as insignificant as a screw or as innocuous as a stand for a satellite. The cost, delays and inconvenience of dealing with the American space industry are exasperating enough to send its foreign partners into orbit. Which is exactly where they have been going—on their own. The American space industry’s share of commercial-satellite manufacturing has fallen from over 80% before 1999 to 50% now. The French are going great guns with an “ITAR-free” design. The Canadians, who once looked to their allies across the border for their satellites, have found that they can buy everything they need elsewhere.

Last week Barack Obama promised he would direct a review of ITAR with a special focus on space hardware. He said outdated restrictions have cost American space-hardware makers billions of dollars in lost business. It makes sense for America to use trade restrictions to hamper foreign efforts in space. But the country would be safer if parts of the industry were more profitable--otherwise firms are unlikely to innovate and may even go out of business. ITAR needs reworking so that it concentrates on a few vital technologies that must not get into enemy hands, leaving the many commonplace technologies to commerce.

You might argue that keeping American technology out of foreign satellites was always the intention of the legislation, even if that harmed American firms. Except that America’s export policy is harming both its industry and its security at the same time. Much of the space technology that Europeans and others are now making poses no strategic threat. It is just lost American business. Foreign firms may not have bothered to develop their own technology if the American sort had been available. And starved of revenues, the Pentagon fears, America’s space industry is now so vulnerable in places that national security is threatened—which is precisely the outcome the legislation sought to avoid. (8/21)

Satellites Track Mexico Kidnap Victims With Chips (Source: Reuters)
Wealthy Mexicans, terrified of soaring kidnapping rates, are spending thousands of dollars to implant tiny transmitters under their skin so satellites can help find them tied up in a safe house or stuffed in the trunk of a car. Kidnapping jumped almost 40 percent between 2004 and 2007 in Mexico according to official statistics. Mexico ranks with conflict zones like Iraq and Colombia as among the worst countries for abductions. (8/21)

Life in Space: What You Really Need to Know About the Space Station (Source: Sandusky Register)
Here are some things you learn if you live on the International Space Station for three months: Life on a spacecraft is more pleasant when the toilet works. Living with two other people in a space station is like being married but not being able to leave the house. When you're getting a haircut in a weightless environment, it's best to use a clipper with a vacuum hose attached to suck up the hair and keep it from floating around. Visit http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2008/08/21/front/863452.txt to view the article. (8/21)

No Storm Delays Expected For Oct. 8 Launch (Source: Florida Today)
NASA's Kennedy Space Center apparently avoided major damage as of Wednesday night, and the agency's next shuttle launch likely will remain on schedule. The storm shut down the nation's shuttle homeport two consecutive days and regular operations won't resume until Friday. But the targeted Oct. 8 launch of shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts on a fifth and final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission is expected to take place as planned. A single panel of aluminum siding blew off the east side of the KSC Vehicle Assembly Building, and a glass door at an office building shattered. There were also a few downed trees. (8/21)

NASA Faces Budget Busting Crawlerway Rebuild for Ares V (Source: Flight International)
NASA's Kennedy Space Center crawlerway may have to be rebuilt because the combined weight of the agency's Ares V cargo launch vehicle, its mobile launcher and crawler-transporter for the Constellation program look like being too heavy for it. Built 40 years ago for the Apollo program, the crawlerway is the road over which crawler-transporters carry the Space Shuttle. The crawlerway consists of two 12m (40ft)-wide lanes, separated 15m apart. The surface, at its thickest points on the curves, has 200mm (8in) of river gravel that is on top of 900mm of compacted limerock, which is in turn on top of two layers of "select fill" that is up to 1.1m deep in total.

The crawler-transporter, mobile launcher and Space Shuttle, with empty external tank, has a mass of about 7.7 million kg (16.9 million lb). Ares V could weigh as much as 10.9 million kg. "Given the projected weight of the Ares V vehicle, mobile launcher and transporter, the total weight is about 33% higher than the crawlerway has ever supported there is a possibility that the crawlerway could fail to support the load, resulting in severe impacts to the Constellation program," says a Constellation vertical integration element risk assessment. (8/21)

Oceaneering Plans to Resubmit Constellation Space Suit Proposal (Source: Oceaneering)
Oceaneering International intends to submit a revised proposal to NASA for development and production of the Constellation Space Suit System
(CSSS). NASA's initial contract award to Oceaneering was terminated for the convenience of the government. Based on a narrow compliance issue, NASA intends to re-open limited discussions, request new final proposal revisions, and re-award the contract. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has dismissed the protest by a competitor of the initial contract award. Mark Gittleman, Vice-President and General Manager of Oceaneering Space Systems, stated, "While we are disappointed that NASA terminated our contract, we believe in their process and support their decision. We are pleased the GAO has dismissed the protest. We look forward to submitting a limited final proposal revision as required by NASA and to a timely contract award." (8/21)

Russia to Cut All Military Ties with NATO (Source: AP)
Russia has informed Norway that it plans to suspend all military ties with NATO, Norway's Defense Ministry said Wednesday, a day after the military alliance urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia. NATO foreign ministers said Tuesday they would make further ties with Russia dependent on Moscow making good on a pledge to pull its troops back to pre-conflict positions in Georgia. However, they stopped short of calling an immediate halt to all cooperation. A Norwegian official told The Associated Press that the Russian official notified Norway it will receive a written note about this soon. He said Norwegian diplomats in Moscow would meet Russian officials on Thursday morning to clarify the implications of the freeze. (8/21)

Space Espionage: A High Priority (Source: RIA Novosti)
Replacements are expected to take place soon in the "space spy community". Yet another American GPS (Global Positioning System) Navstar satellite will be launched into the low earth orbit in autumn. It might seem an ordinary event, had it not been for this satellite being equipped with a platform for intelligence equipment. A purely navigational GPS has turned into an advanced intelligence system, appropriate for a variety of special tasks. Military experts expect the world's major powers to spend as much as $30.6 billion for intelligence satellite programs in the next decade. By that time, around one hundred military satellites of various types will be orbiting earth.

In Russia, the fate of the intelligence satellite program is inseparable from the fate of the national space program. There was a great decline between the late 1990's and early 2000's. By 2005, only one Russian electronic reconnaissance satellite was in orbit, compared to 12 American satellites, surveying Russia's territory. Currently Russia has almost nothing to match the U.S. In November 2006 and August 2007, optical reconnaissance satellites ceased operation. (8/21)

Andrews Awarded Aerojet Contract To Build Hardware For Sundancer (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Andrews Space has announced that it has signed a contract with Aerojet of Sacramento, CA to develop aft propulsion system controllers for Bigelow's Sundancer spacecraft. Sundancer will be the third inflatable prototype orbited by Bigelow Aerospace and the first designed to be human tended. Aerojet is under contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide the aft propulsion system, capable of three-axis attitude control and a controlled de-orbit maneuver. Under the 18 month effort, Andrews will develop, test and deliver three ship sets of custom electronic controllers to Aerojet responsible for commanding the aft propulsion system thrusters and propulsion system elements. (8/21)

DOD Plans to Issue Final Request for Tanker Proposals (Sources: AIA, ERAU)
The DOD said it expects to issue the final request for proposals on a $35 billion refueling tanker bid next week. Both competitors (Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS) met separately with Air Force officials on Wednesday at a meeting called by the Pentagon. The DOD expects to pick the winner of the contract by December. The Northrop Grumman/EADS team, which won the first unsuccessful solicitation, planned to add jobs in Florida that would offset employment losses from the Space Shuttle's retirement. (8/21)