September 17 News Items

Proton Launch Of Nimiq 4 Satellite Postponed (Source: Space Daily)
The launch of a Proton launch vehicle with the Nimiq 4 satellite was postponed for 24 hours to replace an avionics unit on the first stage of the Proton M rocket which showed anomalous signature during routine testing. Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center and International Launch Services plan to make another attempt on 20 September. The satellite is being launched for Telesat. The delay was called after a component malfunction was detected in the LV control system during preflight testing. (9/17)

Getting Science Right In The Next Administration (Source: SpaceRef.com)
A report by the National Academy of Sciences offers advice to McCain and Obama on science and technology appointments. The report recommends that the president and Senate accelerate the appointment process for S&T leadership to reduce the personal and financial burdens on nominees and to allow important positions to be filled swiftly. Congress and the Office of Government Ethics should simplify procedures aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest in appointees, which have become unduly complex over the years. And scientific and professional societies should more actively reach out to the president's science adviser and other senior administration leaders to provide input that broadens the pool of candidates for appointments. (9/17)

Russia To Address Militarization Of Space At UN General Assembly (Source: RIA Novosti)
The demilitarization of space and preventing the glorification of Nazism will be top priorities for the Russian delegation at the UN General Assembly, Russia's envoy to the UN said. "For us, our draft resolution against militarization of space will be of particular importance," Vitaly Churkin said. The Russian delegation will also introduce a draft resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism and address the issue of assisting international development. (9/17)

Venezuela, Cuba May Join Russian Military's Navigation System (Source: Space Daily)
Russia could include Cuba and Venezuela into its Glonass satellite navigation system originally designed for missile targeting by the Soviet military, the head of Russia's space agency said. Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov said negotiations had been held with Cuban and Venezuelan authorities and that Moscow and Havana had talked "in a preliminary way about the possibility of building a space center in Cuba with our assistance." Glonass was developed for missile targeting by the Soviet army in the 1980s to compete with the GPS system used by the United States. The project is expected to be completed, with 24 satellites in orbit, by 2009. (9/17)

$70 Million CU-Boulder Instrument Set for Insertion on Hubble (Source: University of Colorado)
Astronomers will use a $70 million instrument designed by the University of Colorado at Boulder now set for installation on the Hubble Space Telescope in mid-October to probe the "fossil record" of gases in the early universe for clues to the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars and planets. The telephone-booth-sized instrument known as the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, should help scientists better understand the "cosmic web" of material believed to permeate the universe. COS will gather information from ultraviolet light emanating from distant objects, allowing scientists to look back in time and space and reconstruct the physical condition and evolution of the early universe. (9/17)

Hurricane Forced Bedrest Volunteers to Stand Up Early (Source: New Scientist)
I know how hard it is for me to get out of bed after a weekend of serious lazing about, so I feel for the folks in a NASA study who had to stand up after more than a month in bed. They were actually supposed to spend 90 days inclined at an angle of -6 degrees (with their heads lower than the rest of their bodies) to simulate the effects of microgravity. But last week they had to end the study early because Hurricane Ike was headed straight for them in Galveston, Texas. (9/17)

Loose Insulation May Slip Atlantis Launch (Source: Florida Today)
The payload for the Atlantis mission to the Hubble Space Telescope is going to be at least 24 hours later getting to Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 39A -- a development that likely will lead to a similar slip in an Oct. 10 target launch date. Plans to transport the payload to the pad late Thursday are being held up because engineers and technicians discovered that insulation around new telescope batteries came loose and got caught up in a protective bagging inside a cargo bay carrier. (9/17)

Sats Help Special Ops In Hunt For Terrorists (Source: Aviation Week)
Images from high-resolution military spacecraft, combined with powerful change detection software at ground processing facilities, is enabling the space-based identification and tracking of specific Taliban and al Qaeda individuals in the isolated villages and rugged terrain of Afghanistan. This imagery is being passed to U.S. Army Special Forces and Navy Seal teams looking for individuals, even down to specific bomb-makers hiding out in mud huts in the region. (9/17)

Could Lunar Dust be Toxic to Astronauts (Source: Earth & Sky)
As NASA prepares to return to the moon by the year 2020, Kim Prisk of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute is studying a space hazard – lunar dust. "From what we know about lunar dust, it’s fairly reactive and it has properties that are quite similar to fresh fractured quartz here on Earth. And fresh fractured quartz is known to be very toxic." Even airtight space gear can’t protect astronauts. The dust has an electrostatic attraction to the space suits and enters protected module interiors when stuck to the suits. The moon’s low gravity might cause dust to penetrate deeply into an astronaut’s lungs, causing swelling, asthma or bronchitis. Prisk said the task at hand is to determine just how much dust is safe for astronauts to inhale. (9/17)

UC Berkeley to Take Part in Mars Mission (Source: Daily Californian)
UC Berkeley will be a major research partner in a space mission to Mars, led by the University of Colorado. UC Berkeley scientists will contribute four instruments and parts of two instruments that will be used to probe the Martian atmosphere and climate, Lin said. The instruments will measure the atmospheric composition of ions, solar wind and electron population on Mars. The instruments, which will cost around $20 million, will be built at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. (9/16)

Next-Generation Space Ship Has Origins in Valley (Pasadena Star News)
The next generation of space travel has roots in the San Gabriel Valley, and it has local aerospace firms setting their sights on the moon and beyond. Eight local firms are busy manufacturing key systems for Ares I, from Monrovia to Santa Fe Springs, and they are reaping the benefits of $409.5 million in manufacturing contracts to California companies. (9/16)

Russia Begins Elbowing Ukraine Out From Brazil's Space Program (Source: RIA Novosti)
The first launch of a Ukrainian Cyclone-4 rocket from Brazil was scheduled for 2006. But recurring political crises in Ukraine stalled financing. It is now clear that Cyclone-4 production in Ukraine will not begin until 2009, and launch facilities for it will be built in Brazil by 2011 at best. The Cyclone-4 project is crucial for Ukraine's future. If the project proceeds, it will benefit the Ukrainian space industry considerably. To implement the project, the Ukrainian-Brazilian joint venture Alcantara Cyclone Space was set up.

One potential snag is unstable Russian-Ukrainian relations. Russia is Ukraine's contractor. Most of the space infrastructure is being constructed by Russian industrial enterprises. And first among them is the Design Bureau of Transport Engineering (KBTM), which built launch facilities for Cyclone-2 and Cyclone-3 at Plesetsk. The first-stage engines of the Ukrainian rocket have been developed by Russia's Energomash. Russia is also responsible for fuel components. Furthermore, the American aerospace lobby looks askance at Ukraine's efforts to enter the world space market.

Another factor to consider is that Russia has proposed to Brazil they develop an environment-friendly launch vehicle, because Cyclone-4 is not ideal in that respect. It was, incidentally, one of the reasons why Kazakhstan banned the launches of its forerunners from Baikonur: they were using the same aggressive fuel. Russian engineers have assisted Brazil for increased safety and improved rocket technologies. In the spring of this year, Russia and Brazil concluded an agreement to develop a family of launch vehicles based on Russia's Angara vehicle. (9/16)

Orbital Completes Minotaur IV Pathfinder Operations At Vandenberg (Source: Orbital)
Orbital Sciences Corp. has completed the full-scale “pathfinder” ground operations of the Minotaur IV space launch vehicle in preparation for its inaugural flight that is currently scheduled to take place in early 2009. The ground testing activities included the assembly of a full-scale Minotaur IV rocket, using inert rocket motors and flight-qualified structures to fully validate all interfaces with the booster, ground support equipment and facility structures. The Spaceport Systems International launch pad at VAFB will be the launch site for all three Minotaur IV missions planned in 2009. (9/16)

Norway's Space Adventures (Source: Red Orbit)
Space exploration is more than daring astronauts and thrilling astronomy. It has practical applications that are becoming increasingly apparent. Norway is a small but important space nation that envisions playing a larger role in this exploration than do most countries. Norway has a long tradition as a space nation, in no small measure due to its northern position on the globe. Aurora and solar research led to the establishment of the rocket range on the north Norwegian island of Andoya, where the first Norwegian research rocket was launched in 1962. Researchers from a number of countries now utilize this rocket range in their studies of the northern lights and the earth's atmosphere and the facility is NASA's most important launch facility for sounding rockets outside the U.S. (9/16)

Number of Burned-Out Lamps on Japanese Space Lab Nears Half (Source: Mainichi Daily News)
Almost half of the 21 fluorescent lamps aboard Japan's experimentation module Kibo on the International Space Station (ISS) have burned out, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. JAXA officials said if more than half of the lamps are unusable, it will affect experiments and other work in the module. The storage room and the main experimentation room of the Kibo module were installed on the ISS in March and June, respectively. (9/16)

'Pros' and 'Cons' of New Mexico Spaceport Discussed (Source: Alamogordo Daily News)
One issue that seems to be the "talk of the county" is the proposed gross receipts tax (GRT) increase that will appear on the November ballot in Otero County. The Republican Party of Otero County hosted a public meeting to discuss the Spaceport America project and the proposed GRT increase. The Republican Party invited Steve Landeene, executive director of Spaceport Amerca, to attend the meeting and share with the voting public the "pro" side of Spaceport America and what the proposed tax increase means to Otero County. The party has also invited those who oppose this proposed tax increase to come and share the "con" side of these same issues. (9/16)

Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Coverage for 2008 (Source: NASA)
Arctic sea ice coverage appears to have reached its lowest extent for the year and the second-lowest amount recorded since the dawn of the satellite era, according to observations from the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder. While slightly above the record-low minimum set Sept. 16, 2007, this season further reinforces the strong negative trend in summer sea ice extent observed during the past 30 years. Before last year, the previous record low for September was set in 2005. (9/16)

Russia to Help Cuba Build Space Center (Source: Reuters)
Moscow is ready to help Cuba develop its own space center, Russia's space agency chief said after talks in Caracas with Venezuelan and Cuban officials. Russia has stepped up efforts to develop closer links with both countries, which are ideological enemies of Washington, including sending Russian strategic bombers on a mission to Venezuela this month. "We have held preliminary discussions about the possibility of creating a space center in Cuba with our help," Anatoly Perminov said. (9/17)

Space Group Partners with Baltimore Schools for Science/Tech Career Development (Source: USRA)
The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) in partnership with the Baltimore City Public Schools has announced plans to expand the successful Baltimore Aerospace Scholars Program to 3 city High Schools for the 2008-2009 academic year. The Baltimore Aerospace Scholars Program is designed to raise awareness among Baltimore City high school students about aerospace and space science career opportunities and to encourage students onto scientific and technical career paths. (9/17)