August 31 News Items

NASA Worried Worker Exodus Could Be Dangerous (Source: Florida Today)
Nearly half of government shuttle workers worry about their future after the planned 2010 retirement of the fleet, internal agency documents show. Two-thirds say they aim to stay on through the last mission. At the same time, however, three out of four say they might jump ship if the right opportunity presents itself. A growing number of them are not happy with the amount and quality of information they are getting from NASA about the future of their jobs. The findings -- outlined in NASA employee surveys -- point out a major problem. The retention of critically skilled workers is a top risk for the $3 billion-a-year shuttle program -- a risk that ranks higher than the potential for solid rocket booster or main engine failures in flight.

Less than 50 percent of supervisors believe they will have enough people with the right critical skills to successfully fly out the shuttle program. An exodus of talent would increase the probability of a catastrophic accident as NASA strives to finish the International Space Station by a presidential deadline in 2010. NASA plans to launch nine more flights to the space station and another, in October, to service Hubble Space Telescope. The shuttle program employs about 15,000 contractors and 1,700 civil servants in eight states and the District of Columbia. Most work at KSC, Johnson Space Center in Houston, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. (8/31)

ISRO Arm’s Revenue Up at Rs 940-cr on Satellite Launches (Source: The Hindu)
Two commercial satellite launches made from Sriharikota during 2007-08 have driven up the revenue of ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation to Rs 940 crore for that year. Antrix’s pre-audit revenue grew nearly 42 per cent year on year — up from Rs 664 crore — due to the launch of Israeli defense satellite TecSAR in January 2008 and Italy’s Agile in April 2007.

The mainstay of business, however, remains the leasing of transponder capacity on ISRO satellites to broadcasters, VSATs and public sector users. The space services and systems provider of the Department of Space is now a ‘mini ratna’ – which gives it relatively more autonomy to take faster decisions on some of its projects and collaborations. Antrix also saw its provisional profit after tax touching Rs 169 crore, or 60 per cent growth over Rs 105 crore it gained in fiscal 2007. Two years back, in 2005-06, Antrix’s sales were Rs 414 crore. ‘We have also now entered into a good business contract of $5 million (around Rs 20 crore a year) from Russia for IRS data.’ (8/31)