October 7 News Items

NASA Chief Credits Obama for Helping With Soyuz Waiver (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin credited Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for spurring Congress to action on legislation allowing the U.S. space agency to buy the Russian Soyuz flights its needs to send astronauts to the international space station beyond 2011. (10/7)

Virgin Galactic Rejects Million-Dollar Offer To Film Sex Video (Source: Space News)
The private company planning to take wealthy tourists to the edge of the atmosphere starting in late 2009 or early 2010 has refused a million-dollar proposal to film a sex video while the participants are floating gravity free, the company's president said. (10/7)

Bush Signs NASA Budget and Soyuz Waiver into Law (Source: Space News)
NASA now has the legal ability to conclude a new deal with Russia for the three-person Soyuz vehicles it will need to ensure U.S., Canadian, European and Japanese astronauts can fly to the international space station beyond 2011. The permission to move ahead with a new deal with Russia was included in a massive temporary spending measure U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law Sept. 30 to keep the government operating at current spending levels until March. (10/7)

Radiation Spike Temporarily Sidelines European Navigation Satellite (Source: Space News)
Europe's Giove-B navigation satellite suffered a complete shutdown of its functions Sept. 9 in what program managers now believe was what they call a "sudden event upset" that was caused when its onboard computer failed after exposure to a temporary spike in radiation, European government officials said. (10/7)

India Plans New Launch Pad for Proposed Manned Mission (Source: The Hindu)
India plans to a have a new launch pad to undertake its proposed human space flight (manned mission) program, ISRO officials said. A project report on the human space flight is ready and is awaiting final approval from the government, Director Satish Dawan Space Center (SDSC) SHAR, M P Dathan said. He said the indigenously built geosynchronous launch vehicle will be upgraded to undertake this mission. According to ISRO officials, this human space flight is expected in 2015. This will be the third launch pad at Sriharikota, they said. (10/7)

UP Aerospace Does Launches ‘Quickly and Cheaply’ (Source: Denver Business Journal)
Business is up and down for UP Aerospace Inc., and that’s exactly what founder Jerry Larson had in mind. The Highlands Ranch-based rocket company has made a viable business of launching small payloads — from human remains and sports-drink ingredients to scientific experiments and prototype space vehicles -— to the edge of space, and having them parachute back to Earth. In many ways, UP Aerospace is the industry’s opposite of Centennial-based United Launch Alliance, which handles multimillion-dollar satellite launches planned for many years by the government. “We can do launches very quickly and very cheaply,” Larson said.

The three-person company is the lone tenant at New Mexico’s Spaceport America, which is trying to establish itself as the launching pad for an emerging commercial space-launch industry. Spaceport America, financed with $100 million in state money plus local tax revenue, is starting to build a paved road to the site. Virgin Galactic space tourism company and aerospace industry giant Lockheed Martin have signed on to use the port. So far, though, the port consists of UP Aerospace’s 20-by-100-foot concrete takeoff spot and equipment trailer. (10/7)

Debris Tied To Atlas V Launch Woes (Source: Aerospace Daily)
Officials at U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) in Los Angeles now believe the "most probable" root cause of an actuator anomaly during an Atlas V launch mission last spring was transient debris. During the April 14 mission, when an Atlas V boosted the ICO-G1 commercial mobile communications satellite into orbit, a "transient" event occurred, though it caused no impact to the mission, the officials say. Air Force Deputy Undersecretary for Space Gary Payton mentioned the problem with the Russian-designed RD-180 among a few complications with the Air Force's launch fleet.

No hardware fix is needed to solve the problem, SMC officials say. Rather, they are drawing up a new preflight flushing process for the hydraulic system to remove residual debris from the manufacturing and assembly processes. "We expect to clear the RD-180 flight constraint before our next scheduled launch, currently Dec. 4 pending range confirmation," they say. Boeing's second Wideband Global Satcom satellite is supposed to go into orbit on that rocket. (10/7)

Ares I-X Test Flight Facing Uncertain Launch Date (Source: Flight International)
NASA's Ares I-X flight mission team does not expect its test rocket to be launched before June 2009 after the agency announced on 29 September an indefinite delay for the Hubble space telescope's fourth servicing mission. The launch of the Ares I-X, a rocket representative of NASA's Constellation program's Ares I crew launch vehicle (CLV), was to have taken place on 15 April from Launch Complex 39B. Its ascent will give NASA data on the dynamics the Ares I.

However, the Hubble mission requires two Space Shuttles to be on Kennedy's launch pads, 39A and 39B, to prepare for any possible rescue of the Hubble visiting orbiter. NASA needs to modify pad 39B for Ares I-X and its use by a Shuttle will delay that. The Hubble mission has been deferred because part of the telescope's data transfer system failed and NASA wants to send a replacement unit. (10/7)

Esther Dyson Will Be Back-Up Crew Member for Spring Mission (Source: Space Adventures)
Space Adventures announced that Esther Dyson, an investor in Space Adventures and many other innovative companies, will train as the back-up crew member alongside orbital spaceflight candidate Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., who is currently planning a mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in spring 2009. (10/7)

Swedish Spaceport Awaits Government Go-Ahead (Source: Flight International)
An investigation into the national legislative needs of Spaceport Sweden has concluded that Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo could be treated as a sounding rocket. Spaceport Sweden is now waiting to hear from its government's commerce ministry on whether current domestic aviation and sounding rocket law are sufficient to allow commercial spaceline Virgin Galactic to operate. A decision is due by year-end. In January 2007 Virgin Galactic named Sweden's northernmost city, Kiruna, as the location of its first European spaceport. The small, remote city is home to Swedish Space's (SSC) Esrange Space Center, as well as Icehotel, a hotel made from blocks of compacted snow and ice. (10/7)

Israel's F-35 buy could mean jobs for Florida (Source: AIA)
The proposed $15 billion sale of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to Israel could provide a major economic boost to central Florida, where Lockheed Martin Corp. builds training systems and weapons-targeting systems for the plane. Harris Corp., maker of the F-35's cockpit communications systems, also is based in the area, along with dozens of subcontractors. (10/7)

Omega Envoy Enters Google Lunar X Prize Competition (Source: Omega Envoy)
Florida’s first registered team to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize Competition, Omega Envoy, announced its official registration with the competition. The team was formed through a new Central Florida-based not-for-profit organization – Earthrise Space, Inc. The X Prize Foundation hosts a series of privately-sponsored competitions with the aim of advancing science and technology in the fields of space exploration, public transportation and genetics. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a rover on the surface of the Moon. The teams must complete the following tasks: travel 500 meters on the lunar surface; transmit 500 MB of high-definition video; transmit several panoramic views of the landscape; send an e-mail back to Earth; and send a text message. Visit http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/lunar/teams/omega-envoy for information. (10/7)

Congress Limits NASA's Ability To Communicate (Source: NASA Watch)
The NASA Authorization Act, H.R. 6063, which has passed both the House and the Senate, is awaiting signature by the President. It contains a new provision restricting NASA's total authorized spending on conferences to $5 million in FY 09. This limit represents an over two-thirds reduction in spending from FY 08. NASA's systems and processes will need to be updated to ensure compliance with this new requirement.

Until further notice, no FY-09 funds are to be committed, obligated or disbursed to sponsor, travel to, or pay admission to an international or domestic conference. No commitments or obligations to conference facilities or hotels may be made using FY 09 funds. Conferences that are planned in the current quarter, or attendance at conferences in the current quarter, may proceed as long as only FY 08 funds are used for all participants. (10/7)