August 8 News Items

Brevard County Town Hall Meeting on Space Planned for Aug. 13 (Source: NSSFL)
The City of Titusville and Brevard County Government will host an interactive town hall discussion on the future of Space in Brevard County on August 13 at 5 p.m. at Titusville City Hall. Panelists will include Congressman Tom Feeney; Marsh Heard, Chairman of the Florida Aviation Aerospace Alliance; Frank DiBello, Economic Development Commission consultant; and Steve Kohler, president of Space Florida. NASA KSC Director Bill Parsons is an invited guest. Viewers or listeners may e-mail questions to mailto:c.moore@mail.house.gov during the meeting to be addressed by the panelists. (8/8)

More Rumblings Over Ares I; Is the Stick Dying? (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
There are rumblings of discord in the NASA family over the agency's troubled Ares I moon rocket. According to well-placed sources inside NASA, the astronaut office is deeply unhappy with the design of Ares as it emerges from an important review that is in the process of being finished up now. The concern is so great, the sources say, that there is some talk at the highest levels of NASA about the possibility of ditching the Ares, with its unconventional stick-like solid rocket booster first stage, in favor of a more conventional rocket design - one that sounds like the shuttle launch system without the shuttle. (8/8)

Is the Space Race Still On? (Source: Money Week)
As the US government has already run up a $500 billion deficit, you’d think the future was bleak for NASA. But the agency has become something of an election issue, as up to 6,400 jobs could go when the Shuttle stops flying. “In a dramatic reversal of policy,” says Robert Block in the Orlando Sentinel, Barack Obama has just told Florida supporters that he no longer wants to slash NASA’s budget in favour of education programs, saying the US “cannot cede our leadership in space”. He said nothing specific about moon missions, but was more publicly supportive of the agency than ever before: “under my watch, NASA will inspire the world, make America stronger and help grow the economy here in Florida”. John McCain has said he supports going to the moon by 2020.

Is it all worth it? Critics say not – scanning the universe from the ISS may be fascinating, but it’s being funded by taxpayers’ cash at the expense of this planet’s social programs. Still, private enterprise is increasingly taking an interest in the space race. Visit http://www.moneyweek.com/file/51892/is-the-space-race-still-on.html to view the article. (8/8)

Huntsville Space Agency Workforce Glad To Be Neighbor (Source: Redstone Rocket)
The U.S. space program was born at Redstone Arsenal. The rocket program began by the Army has grown dramatically since the first Redstone rocket took to the skies 50 years ago. Nonetheless, the space business continues on post in the form of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Marshall has not forgotten its Army roots. The partnership Marshall and Redstone Arsenal has continued and is alive and well today. The installation provides support services for Marshall, much like any other post tenant. Components from both sides regularly partner for testing and other projects.

Marshall occupies 237 buildings at Redstone on 1,841 acres. Many of its 6,700 employees come from similar backgrounds and fields as the Army's civilian and contractor workforce. Pulling from the same skill pool will present a few challenges as Base Realignment and Closure moves more organizations onto the installation. (8/8)

Museum Vies for NASA Shuttle, Space Exhibit (Source: Dayton Business Journal)
Though the three remaining NASA shuttles are slated for space travel until 2010, an effort is quietly underway to house one of them post-retirement at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The museum, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is currently in fundraising mode to stockpile $40 million toward the construction of a new hangar for a space exhibit. The museum has identified the exhibit as its most important priority, and the U.S. Air Force has made a formal request to NASA for one of the three shuttles for display at the museum. The Air Force Museum Foundation hopes to raise the funds as soon as possible and has collected $14 million thus far. (8/8)

State’s Aerospace Industry Watching Presidential Race (Source: Denver Business Journal)
Colorado’s aerospace industry is expected to win no matter who voters send to the White House this November. Both U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have pledged to revitalize NASA and, though each promises more careful and lean military contracting, neither is expected to slash spending on Department of Defense space programs. That’s good news for Colorado, which, with an estimated 26,650 employees, has the nation’s second-largest concentration of space industry workers. A change at the White House should improve the prospects of Colorado space companies and NASA, even though President George W. Bush backed missions to Mars and the moon. Click here to view the article. (8/8)

The Battle Goes On for NASA's Ares Rockets (Source: Flight International)
For NASA's Constellation program, using 25-year-old Space Shuttle flight-proven systems seemed like a good idea for the agency's new Moon rockets. Since their proposal in 2005, however, the launchers' development progress has seen Shuttle-derived design options dropped while others have caused additional problems.

Beyond the much publicised CLV solid-rocket motor oscillation problem, other issues for Ares I include pocket buckling in its upper-stage liquid hydrogen (LH2) tank, an immature first-stage forward skirt avionics box design, protection for parachutes against the interstage's shaped linear charge separation system and first-stage thrust vector control (TVC) changes. These outstanding issues did not stop NASA from declaring preliminary design review completion for the Ares I first-stage in June, while the upper stage review was to conclude this week.

NASA likes to promote the progress of Ares I upper-stage and instrument-unit mock-ups, manufacturing technology testing, launch abort system motor firings, parachute drops, 6,000h of CLV windtunnel tests, first-stage development motor fabrication and facility upgrades for future integrated vehicle ground vibration testing. The CLV vehicle stack preliminary design review started in July, with completion planned for September, but the agency also expects to have what it calls a first-stage "delta PDR" to address the oscillation solution and its impact on the vehicle. (8/8)