October 19 News Items

WorldSpace Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy (Source: Washington Business Journal)
Satellite Radio broadcaster WorldSpace Inc., struggling to raise capital it needed as debt came due, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and will seek to either reorganize or sell the company. Silver Spring-based WorldSpace says its board determined a Chapter 11 filing was necessary for the company to engage in an orderly process to raise sufficient funds to repay its senior secured notes and convertible notes by means of either a sale of the company or its assets, or a recapitalization of the company. Creditors have agreed to fund with company with $13 million in debtor-in-possession financing for up to 90 days. WorldSpace has about 171,000 subscribers for its satellite service in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. (10/17)

NASA Launches American Robot Explorer (Source: Florida Today)
A robotic U.S. explorer set sail Sunday on a two-year mission to study the very edges of the solar system -- the boundary between the sun's atmosphere and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer was propelled into a highly elliptical orbit after launch on a Pegasus XL rocket that was dropped from the belly of an Orbital Sciences Corp. L-1011 aircraft flying 39,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean near Kwajalein Atoll. The four-stage rocket appeared to perform just as expected. (10/19)

India: 'We Can Easily Catch Up With China' (Source: Outlook India)
We have sent our satellites to a distance of nearly 36,000 kms and put them in a geo-stationary orbit. But, for the first time we are travelling 400,000 kms. To reach near the moon and put the satellite in a suitable orbit around it, poses a lot of technology challenge in terms of tracking, orbit determination, navigation, guidance and so on. Apart from this, the mission is unique because we are trying to map the entire lunar surface in terms of its terrain features and mineralogical content. We hope to provide a lot of inputs to the scientific community on the various aspects of the moon, on its origin and then in turn to throw light on the origin of the earth itself.

Compared to China we are better off in many areas. For example our communication satellites are world class. Chinese still depend on some foreign companies to supply some components. On launchers, we have very advanced capability. As far as manned-mission is concerned we are lagging behind, but that was a conscious decision on our part. Since it involves a lot of funds, in the initial phase of the moon program we have not given thrust to that area. But given the funds and necessary approvals we can easily catch up with our neighbour in this area. Click here to view the article. (10/19)

South Korean Home-Made Satellite to Be Put Into Orbit Next Year (Source: Korea Times)
South Korean scientists unveiled the mock-up of a rocket designed to send a domestically produced research satellite into orbit next year from the country's spaceport in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. A successful launch from the Naro Space Center would make Korea the ninth country in the world to launch its own satellite from home soil. The 33-meter, 140-ton ground test vehicle (GTV) revealed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is virtually identical to the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1) rocket that will be launched sometime during the second quarter of next year. The experimental rocket is used to examine engine, machinery and electronics systems, fuel injection and also test ground equipment and the launch pad. The KSLV-1 is a joint project with Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center. (10/19)

India May Be World Leader in Satellites to Assist Practical Work on the Ground (Source: Newsweek)
Nobody would mistake India for a leader in outer space. Many Indians are hopeful that the launch this week of the Chandrayaan I spacecraft, which will orbit the moon in search of water, will mark a turning point for the nation's space program. The Indian mission will carry instruments for the U.S. and European space agencies in addition to its own Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Judging from local media coverage, Indians are following the mission almost as closely as the gyrations of the stock markets.

The Indian space program is already far ahead in one respect: its use of space technologies to solve the everyday problems of ordinary people on the ground. For more than 20 years, India has been quietly investing hundreds of millions of dollars in its earth-sciences program with an eye toward helping farmers with their crops, fishermen with their catches and rescue workers with management of floods and other disasters. "India is leading the way in the approach towards the rationale for earth observation," says an ESA official. (10/19)

Spaceport Tax Opponents Share Their Thoughts (Alamogordo Daily News)
Spaceport America from which commercial rocketeers could ferry wealthy tourists on sub-orbital joyrides at about $200,000 a pop is a great idea, but an Otero County sales tax to help pay for the venture is untimely and unfair. This was the consensus among opponents who were polled and interviewed for this story. Spearheaded by Gov. Richardson, proponents are pushing with all the hoopla of an all-out political campaign, including a local office two full color brochures with commentary by local notables, lawn posters, press releases, ads, mailers and speeches. Former city attorney Bill Brogan conceded that the spaceport "is probably a good idea." But he summed up the feelings of many, saying: "I have yet to be shown anything other than smoke and mirrors for benefits to Otero County lots of noise and financial backing for the publicity, but no measurable product. I am under the impression this has been tried in other states without any success." (10/19)

SES Exercises Option on Three Ariane 5 Launches (Source: Space News)
Satellite-fleet operator SES has exercised options to launch three heavy telecommunications satellites aboard Europe's Ariane 5 rocket between 2009 and 2012, the Arianespace launch consortium announced Oct. 17. The satellites will weigh between 4,400 and 5,800 kilograms each. One will be the Astra 3B direct-broadcast television and broadband Internet satellite under construction by Astrium. The other two satellites covered under the agreement have yet to be identified. (10/19)

U.S. Defense Bill Targets Use of Chinese Rockets (Source: Space News)
The U.S. secretary of defense will review whether allowing companies with U.S. defense contracts to launch satellites in China presents security risks under legislation signed into law Oct. 14 by President Bush. The Defense Authorization Act mainly deals with U.S. defense programs and policies. But it includes an order that the U.S. defense secretary investigate "whether there are any security risks associated" when companies that do business with U.S. Defense Department participate in "the development or manufacture of satellites for launch from the People's Republic of China; and the launch of satellites" from China. (10/19)

Orbital Set to Launch Company-Built IBEX Spacecraft Aboard Pegasus (Source: Business Wire)
Orbital Sciences Corp. is in final preparations to launch the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite that the company designed, manufactured and tested at its Virginia production facilities. The targeted launch date is Oct. 19, which is subject to final pre-launch preparations and testing activities at the launch site, as well as acceptable weather conditions at the time of the launch. The IBEX satellite will be launched aboard Orbital’s Pegasus air-launched rocket in a mission that will originate from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands located near the Equator in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The available launch window for the IBEX mission extends from 1:44 p.m. to 1:51 p.m. (10/19)

Pentagon Plans ‘Spaceplane’ to Reach Hotspots Fast (Source: Times of London)
The American military is planning a “spaceplane” designed to fly a crack squad of heavily armed marines to trouble spots anywhere in the world within four hours. Engineers working on the craft, codenamed Hot Eagle, were told to draw up blueprints for a prototype which generals want to have in the air within 11 years. Pentagon planners have been encouraged by technical breakthroughs from Burt Rutan, chief designer on Sir Richard Branson’s White Knight spaceship, which is due to begin test flights next year and to carry tourists on suborbital journeys from 2010.

Last week Rutan, 65, who built the first privately funded craft to reach space and won the $10m X prize for his achievement in 2004, gave his blessing to Hot Eagle, which could be based on White Knight’s technology. Rutan said it would be an expensive way to transport troops “but it could be done. It is feasible”. Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, which is funding White Knight, recently predicted that it could be used to airlift emergency supplies into disaster zones. (10/19)

Lockheed Opens New Cyber Security Center (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin has established a new Center for Cyber Security Innovation that will be led by Lee Holcomb, the former chief technology officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The new center will allow the company to organize and centrally manage its efforts in the cyber security field. Meanwhile, recently retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Croom, the former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), has joined Lockheed Martin as vice president of cyber security solutions. (10/19)

Orbital Sciences Considers Move to Higher-Power Satellites (Source: Space News)
Orbital Sciences Corp. expects to decide by next spring whether to invest in broadening its telecommunications satellite product line to include higher-power spacecraft, a move that could nearly triple the revenue potential of the company's increasingly profitable commercial-satellite business, CEO David Thompson said. Thompson cautioned that no decision has been made, and that if the company makes the investment it would be far less costly than the research and development budget for Orbital's Taurus 2 medium-lift rocket, whose first launch is expected to occur in late 2010. (10/19)

Satellite Demand Considered Strong Enough to Weather Downturn (Source: Space News)
Demand for new satellites to replace spacecraft in aging constellations will carry large satellite manufacturers through the U.S. financial crisis, while the market looks less promising for start-ups and companies owned by private equity firms, according to industry officials. Start-ups likely will be the hardest hit by the shaky economy resulting from the collapse of major financial institutions, the volatile stock market and a clamp on credit. (10/19)

France Seeks Investors in Global Satellite Mapping System (Source: Space News)
The French space agency has concluded that a profitable business can be made by launching 13 small satellites carrying high-resolution optical Earth observation cameras to provide 1-meter-resolution color imagery worldwide, with all the images refreshed every week. The agency now is looking for private investors to share its enthusiasm for the project, called e-CORSE, or electronic-Continuous Observing System Relayed by Cellular processing Environment. Following consultations with the private sector in France, they estimate e-CORSE would cost some $537 million to build 20 small satellites and launch 13 of them aboard a single Russian Soyuz rocket into low Earth orbit. The remaining satellites would serve as ground spares. (10/19)

Billions at Stake in Competition for JSC Mission Control Contract (Source: Space News)
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are going head-to-head for a multibillion-dollar NASA contract that will put one of the companies in charge of keeping Johnson Space Center's Mission Control Center and related training facilities up and running for the next four to six years. NASA is on track to select a contractor Nov. 7 for the so-called Facilities Development and Operations Contract (FDOC), a four-year, cost-plus contract with two one-year options that, if exercised, would extend the agreement to 2014. NASA put FDOC out for competition this past spring with the aim of saving money by merging all or part of two existing contracts into a single contract.

FDOC would combine all of the work Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services of Gaithersburg, Md., currently performs under a nearly $700 million Mission Support Operations Contract awarded in 2003 and about one-fifth of the work Houston-based United Space Alliance performs under its $6 billion Space Program Operations Contract, a 2006 replacement for the Space Flight Operations Contract that NASA awarded the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture in order to put a single contractor in charge of space shuttle operations. (10/19)