October 14 News Items

NASA Figures Out Remote-Control Hubble Photo Fix (Source: AP)
NASA engineers say they know how to fix the broken Hubble Space Telescope: They have to wake up computer parts that have been sleeping in space for more than 18 years. On Wednesday, NASA will start a complicated remote-control fix of a major glitch that stopped the telescope from capturing and beaming down pictures. Hubble should be able to send stunning astronomy photos back to Earth by Friday, officials said. Key to the repair is activating a backup data-handling system that hasn't been turned on since the telescope launched in 1990. Science data will be rerouted to that system, the equivalent of driving a new route that hasn't been used before. (10/14)

Jumping-Off Point for the 'Final Frontier' (Source: Inverness Courier)
On a wet Saturday morning I joined a group of people in Borders bookshop to hear a heady account of Scotland's future in space. A spokesman for Sir Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic confirmed that it has chosen Scotland as the venue for a spaceport. In the shortlist of sites, the front runner is Lossiemouth. Kinloss and Machrihanish are also under consideration. What Branson has in mind is space tourism. Forget long voyages into the outer reaches of the solar system, photography trips to the moons of Saturn, or field club excursions to walk the canals of Mars. At least for the foreseeable. The space trips in Branson's outfit will be short, presumably sweet and definitely weightless for a wee while. (10/14)

Rocket Racer is 'Go' for Show (Source: MSNBC)
After mere months of development time, the Rocket Racing League's Armadillo-powered racing plane has gotten the Federal Aviation Administration's go-ahead to show its stuff in 20 places around the country. Don't expect to see a rocket showdown in a sky near you just yet, however: The league won't start its "exhibition season" until next year, and honest-to-goodness races are slated to begin in 2010. (10/14)

Editorial: Space Exploration Vital to Our Economy (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have both expressed support for the nation's space program during their campaigns. Both candidates promise to close the gap between retiring the space shuttle and bringing online the next generation of space vehicles. They commit to funding NASA's Constellation program that is developing the shuttle replacement vehicles, preserving our space workforce, better utilizing the international space station, and strengthening space-science programs and aeronautics research.

Both candidates, in speeches and campaign documents, talk about the role of space as being important to the nation's economic competitiveness, but neither includes investment in space as a component in their economic plans. However, space as an economic driver has become increasingly recognized and better understood by global experts as vital to our economic and technological progress. (10/14)

India Plans New Manned Rocket Launch Pad (Source: Flight International)
The Indian Space Research Organization plans to build a third launch pad at its Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Sriharikota island on India's eastern coast for its proposed 2015 manned flight. The SDSC's two launch pads already in operation have facilities for solid propellant processing, motor static testing, launch vehicle integration and launch and range operations, including telemetry, tracking and the command network. The manned missions launch pad will differ from the others with the addition of an on-pad emergency escape system for astronauts. (10/14)

UNH Invades Space with NASA Mission (Source: The New Hampshire)
It's Friday afternoon and most students are out waiting for homecoming weekend to begin. Sophomore mechanical engineering major Kevin Perkins, on the other hand, is having his fun in the new laboratory of the University of New Hampshire's Space Science Center. On the ground floor of Morse Hall, he's working closely with research project engineer Stan Ellis. They're shuffling back and forth between the machinery and their worktable, both wearing blue jeans and T-shirts. However casual the atmosphere may seem, Perkins isn't merely asking Ellis for help with his homework. The two are collaborating on a mission for NASA, which has given UNH a $61 million contribution to design, build, and launch four small satellites by the year 2014. (10/14)

UM Scientist Helps Design Instrument on NASA Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Source: Helena Independent Record)
University of Montana scientist Dan Reisenfeld helped design one of two primary instruments on the NASA spacecraft Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, which will create an all-sky map of the interstellar boundary at the far reaches of our solar system. Reisenfeld and fellow UM researcher Paul Janzen are part of the core payload team for the spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch Oct. 19. (10/14)

KSC Contractor Earns Honor from NASA (Source: Florida Today)
NASA's Kennedy Space Center has named ASRC Aerospace Corp. its 2008 Small Business Contractor of the Year. ASRC Aerospace, with 480 employees at KSC, supports the shuttle and Constellation space programs and NASA's aeronautical missions at Glenn Research Center, Ames Research Center and Johnson Space Center. ASRC provides technical and engineering support for NASA's transition from its space shuttle program to the Constellation program. (10/14)

Embry-Riddle Participates in Space Tourism/Transportation Symposium (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will be represented at the International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) in New Mexico on Oct. 22-23. Embry-Riddle is pursuing the development of a Space Transportation Research & Development Institute (STRDI) that would be based at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (10/14)

Adviser Says McCain Won't Freeze Science Funding (Source: The Hill)
Republican presidential nominee John McCain would exempt funding for scientific research from the across-the-board federal spending freeze he's promised on the campaign trail, a campaign adviser said. The McCain budget plan includes “a specific carve-out for spending on science,” he said. “You’ll definitely see, under John McCain, more spending on research.”

Sen. McCain (Ariz.) had emphasized his intention to hold flat federal spending on programs not connected to defense, veterans’ programs or homeland security as a key part of his fiscal platform. The adviser highlighted McCain’s support for the “America Competes Act,” a law enacted in August 2007 with bipartisan support that, among other things, will double federal spending on physical science research by 2016. Unlike McCain, however, Sen. Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), were among the 69 co-sponsors of the Senate version of this legislation.

Under McCain, funding also would increase for NASA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), said his adviser. After noting the several years of essentially flat funding that have passed since the Clinton and Bush administrations, along with Congress, completed a project to double the NIH budget to $27 billion in fiscal 2003, Brannon said it was time to increase funding. An Obama campaign policy adviser said the Democrat would seek to go further. “Mr. Obama has committed himself to doubling basic research over the first term, over the first four years,”he said. (10/14)

Germany Opens New Space Institute (Source: DLR)
With the inauguration of their new laboratory and office building on Oct. 13, the 68 staff members of the Institute of Space Systems of the German Aerospace Center have now fully taken up their scientific duties at DLR's new Bremen site. This strengthens Bremen's position as a center for space technology even further. The new DLR institute will focus especially on developing space systems. It will implement new, innovative technologies and procedures that will enable space missions to be realized more efficiently and economically. (10/13)

Military Satellite Contract a "Must-Win" for Boeing, Analysts Say (Source: AIA)
Analysts say Boeing Co.'s bid on a $15 billion Pentagon satellite contract is a "must-win" for the company, which has seen its satellite order backlog slip by nearly 50% since its heyday in the late 1990s. Boeing is one of two finalists to build the Pentagon's "transformational" satellites, or TSATs, touted as the next big thing in military communications. The initial contract, valued at $6.6 billion, is set for announcement after Dec. 15. "Boeing has its back to the wall," says Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute. "If it doesn't win the contract, it will have real difficulty sustaining the workforce." (10/13)

DARPA Cancels Reusable Mach 6 Vehicle (Source: AIA)
Blackswift, an unmanned hypersonic vehicle capable of cruising at Mach 6, has been canceled by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency following a drastic cut in funding by Congress. DARPA had hoped to award a demonstration contract later this year, but critics in Congress were skeptical, cutting the project's requested budget from $120 million to just $10 million for fiscal 2009. "The Blackswift testbed would have been able to take off under its own power, cruise at Mach 6, maneuver at hypersonic speeds and land, and then do it again," said program manager Steven Walker. "Obviously, we are disappointed that we will not have the appropriated funds to move forward." (10/14)

Russia's Star City Shows Strains of International Cooperation in Space (Source: AIA)
Star City, the Russian military base where astronauts and cosmonauts train side-by-side to fly on Soyuz spacecraft, is a microcosm of all the conflict and cooperation that has made the International Space Station a success. Star City will become even more important when NASA scuttles the space shuttle program in 2010, leaving Russian rockets as the only means of transportation for reaching the ISS until new Constellation craft are launched in 2015. (10/14)

The Big To-Do List--Science Challenges Facing the Next President (Source: Scientific American)
This month marks the 50th anniversary of NASA, which was launched a year after the Soviet Union lofted Sputnik into orbit, a feat that threatened to accelerate the communist rival's lead over the U.S. in spaceflight technology. It's probably fair to ask whether any U.S. president might once again be in a position to respond to such a huge scientific and technological challenge. Candidates may have to revise their ambitions and spending plans in the wake of the $700-billion federal fiscal bailout, which promises to put a massive dent in taxpayers' pocketbooks.

According to a report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, the campaign platforms of both McCain and Obama "incorporate substantially more focus on innovation and technology policies than their predecessors' platforms in the 2004 election." Yet just about the same time that Obama released an 11-page plan for science and innovation, on the heels of his endorsement by dozens of Nobel Prize winners, his opponent's campaign started talking about a one-year freeze in discretionary spending.

And with McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, sparking an unprecedented level of interest in the beliefs and philosophies of a vice presidential candidate, some more populist questions of science—creationism in the classroom, for example—have taken on a more direct resonance with voters than usual. Visit http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=presidential-to-do-list to view the article. (10/14)