February 19 News Items

New Speakers Confirmed, Papers Invited for ISDC in Florida (Source: NSSFL)
The International Space Development Conference will be held in Orlando on May 28-30. Recently confirmed ISDC speakers include Elon Musk (SpaceX), Will Pomerantz (X PRIZE) and Alan Ladwig (NASA). Among other topics, ISDC will provide insights on the Obama Administration's transition and evolving space policy directions. Other sessions will focus on living in space, space settlement, science missions, technology development, education, outreach, and more! Paper abstracts are invited for participating in these sessions. Visit http://www.ISDC2009.org for information on registration and abstract submission. (2/19)

Space Transportation R&D Institute to Support Spaceport Roadmap Initiative (Source: ERAU)
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the University of Central Florida have kicked-off a spaceport "roadmapping" initiative supported by the NASA-sponsored Florida Space Grant Consortium and Space Florida. The collaboration is part of an Embry-Riddle-led multi-university Space Transportation Research & Development Institute (STRDI). The project will identify steps that should be taken to maximize the commercial and government use of taxpayer-funded infrastructure at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, including policy recommendations for improving the Cape's competitiveness. The universities have begun discussions with Space Florida to ensure that the project complements the agency's own state-sponsored strategic and master planning efforts at the spaceport. (2/19)

Aging Mars Rover Gets a Power Boost (Source: Florida Today)
NASA's aging Mars rover Spirit has a bit more power under its hood thanks to some Martian winds that cleaned dust from its vital solar panels. The handy cleaning occurred earlier this month and was discovered by engineers scanning data from Spirit's power subsystem. "We will be able to use this energy to do significantly more driving," said a rover mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "Our drives have been averaging about 50 minutes, and energy has usually been the limiting factor. We may be able to increase that to drives of an hour and a half." (2/19)

SpaceTEC Plans Annual Partners Meeting in Cocoa Beach on May 3-5 (Source: SpaceTEC)
The 2009 SpaceTEC Annual Meeting is scheduled for May 3-5, 2009 in Cocoa Beach. SpaceTEC is a national consortium of academic institutions that collaborate to provide aerospace technical training, and administer a certification program for aerospace industry technicians. Visit http://www.spacetec.org for information. (2/19)

RSC ENERGIA Clarifies Relationship With ILS (Source: SpaceDaily.com)
Mass media information and that of the official web-site of International Launch Services (ILS) gives the mistaken impression that RSC Energia is still taking an active part in ILS. Actually it is not the fact. RSC Energia has been debarred from any meaningful participation in ILS in recent years. In 1992, Russia's government authorized Khrunichev to set up a joint enterprise with Lockheed to market launch services aboard Proton and Atlas rockets. The venture was reorganized as ILS after Lockheed merged with Martin Marietta in 1995. In 2006, Lockheed Martin quit the project and sold its shares to Space Transport Inc.

In May 2008 Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center acquired the entire Space Transport, Inc. block of shares in ILS. Notwithstanding the fact that RSC Energia owns 17% of the whole equity capital of ILS, its participation in the Company is rather formal than real. Energia is not in the position to influence the decision making process. Repeated attempts that RSC Energia took over the recent years to get representation on the ILS Board of Directors proved to be futile. (2/19)

Space Florida Agrees to Freeze Launch Complex Spending (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The chairman of a state Senate committee reviewing Space Florida’s work said Thursday he would push to freeze about $10 million in public financing intended to help build a much-heralded commercial launch complex at Cape Canaveral. State auditors recommended the freeze on spaceport funds for the Launch Complex 36 project in a review of the Brevard-based agency’s performance earlier this year because the agency hasn’t yet finalized a master plan for the $55 million facility.

Space Florida President Steve Kohler told a Senate committee that the plan would be complete by the end of the year and agreed to cooperate with the halt on state spending on the launch pad. "I would assume that will encourage them to complete it very quickly,” said Committee Chairman Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey. The Legislature devoted $14.5 million to kick-start the construction on Air Force property last spring, and just over $2 million has already been tapped.

Backers of the complex have suggested they would need to ask the Legislature for as much as $44 million more over the next three years, although Kohler said they hoped to leverage the current funding to sell bonds – if enough commercial business can be generated to pay for them. But the complex is somewhat controversial within the space industry, because it would be designed to launch different types of rockets – something many private companies are reluctant to go along with. Thus far, no private investors have agreed to launch from the complex. (2/19)

Four Rockets Launched From Alaska (Source: NewsMiner.com)
Four NASA rockets were launched from Poker Flat Research Range early Wednesday morning. The rockets, carrying payloads that emitted glowing vapor trails that help scientists study turbulence in the upper atmosphere, were launched between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Alaska Standard Time. The whitish trails, some resembling corkscrews in the sky, were visible in many parts of Interior and northern Alaska. Skies were clear with a faint arc of the aurora visible. “There were four trails on the up-leg (of the rocket trajectory), four on the down-leg,” said Gerald Lehmacher of Clemson University, principal investigator for the experiment. “The instruments worked well.” (2/19)

Astrotech Official Suggests Florida Facility Could Support Satellite Assembly (Source: ERAU)
Astrotech's Lance Lord, during a presentation to the Space Florida Board of Directors, said the company's payload processing facility near the Cape Canaveral Spaceport could support final assembly of large satellites, allowing satellite manufacturers to relieve congestion at their out-of-state production facilities. He also said Astrotech looks forward to supporting the payload processing requirements of companies that would operate from Launch Complex 36, which is proposed for conversion into a multi-vehicle facility by Space Florida. (2/19)

Orbital Space Tourism Prices Rise (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Microsoft billionaut Charles Simonyi, who will soon be taking a second working vacation to the International Space Station, says on his second trip into space he’ll be much more efficient at performing experiments, being more adapted to zero gravity. In a Seattle Times article, Simonyi seems to confirm that he’s paying about $35 million for his upcoming 13-day trip, an increase of about $10 million from his 2007 flight. “The costs are going up — both the manufacturing costs and the demand are going up. It’s a short-term phenomenon,” Simonyi claims. This is actually about triple what Dennis Tito paid only eight years ago (the official $20 million figure was significantly inflated).

Some of the increase is due to the dramatic decline in the value of the dollar during the Bush presidency. But, certainly not all of it. Supply and demand - and the Russians getting smarter about how much to charge - have played a part. So in 8 years, no actual progress has been made in bringing down the cost of orbital flights in the past decade. I’m not sure how exactly prices are supposed to drop, with the shuttle retiring next year and Russia straining to produce enough Soyuz and Progress vehicles to help keep ISS supplied. Space Adventures is planning to fly independent missions to ISS with one cosmonauts and two paying customers beginning in 2011. But, I think this is a once-a-year flight (instead of every six months as it is now), so the number of available seats probably wouldn’t increase. So, where is the incentive for Space Adventures to drop the price? (2/19)

UK Government to Back Air-Launched Satellite Launcher (Source: Flight Global)
The UK government is prepared to fully support the development of the air launched micro satellite carrying rocket proposed by Virgin Galactic and Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL). Although SSTL has written to the UK government's civil space activity coordinating body, the British National Space Center (BNSC), requesting phase A study support for the launcher a senior BNSC official told Flight that it will see the project through to the end.

Potentially starting this April the 12-month study will produce a concept design, development schedule and costs. SSTL started talking to Virgin Galactic in mid-2008 and its own market analysis convinced it that the growing worldwide micro satellites market would support such a service. An all composite two-stage rocket could place 200kg (440lb) into low Earth orbit. This analysis was provided to Virgin Galactic, which agreed with SSTL's conclusions, and has since named the rocket LauncherOne. (2/19)

X-Prize Official Praises Space Florida (Sources: Parabolic Arc, X-Prize.org)
The X Prize’s William Pomerantz praises Space Florida’s work with the non-profit organization: “The Google Lunar X PRIZE has offered me some chance to watch Space Florida at work. We’ve had two major areas of overlap with Space Florida on that prize: first, the agency stepped forward by offering a Bonus Prize of $2 million to the winner of the competition if they launch from Florida. Secondly, I know that they were very instrumental in helping encourage the formation of what eventually became team Omega Envoy. In both cases, the express purpose of their efforts was to promote commercial space enterprise in the state of Florida. Also in both cases, these efforts were started by and internally pushed within Space Florida without any real prompting on our part.” (2/19)

Viability of Multi-User Launch Complex Questioned (Source: ERAU)
Space Florida's plan to convert Launch Complex 36 into a multi-user facility has raised some eyebrows among seasoned rocketeers. As indicated in the recent legislative audit of Space Florida: "several representatives of space launch companies ... questioned whether Space Florida could develop this site as a multi-use launch complex because each launch vehicle has unique technical specifications." Space Florida's Steve Kohler responded in a recent Orlando Sentinel article that such a pad "not only can be done, it has been done."

Mr. Kohler is correct. Launch Complex 46 was converted into a multi-user launch pad in the 1990s by Space Florida's predecessor, the Spaceport Florida Authority. LC-46 was designed to accommodate vehicles planned by Alliant Techsystems, Lockheed Martin, and Orbital Sciences Corporation. Converting LC-46 for three users was complicated, but aided by the fact that their vehicles were relatively small and similar in design. Ultimately, the facility hosted only two launches -- both by Lockheed Martin Athena vehicles -- before the market dried up for this particular class of rockets.

Despite the fact that LC-36 would support (as yet unnamed) larger, more sophisticated vehicles, a multi-user redesign of the facility would be technically feasible, thanks, in part, to the fact that LC-36 includes two launch pads. However, the real challenges are in its operational and financial feasibility. Launch companies that might share LC-36 would encounter significant scheduling conflicts and other challenges related to liability and the protection of proprietary interests. And the design/construction cost for accommodating multiple substantially dissimilar vehicles (of varying commercial viability and in an overcrowded international marketplace) might be difficult to justify. (2/19)

New Company Looks to Produce Space Based Solar Power Within a Decade (Source: Universe Today)
Is space-based solar power (SBSP) a technology whose time has come? The concept and even some of the hardware for harnessing energy from the sun with orbiting solar arrays has been around for some time. But the biggest challenge for making the concept a reality, says entrepreneur Peter Sage of Space Energy, Inc., is that SBSP has never been commercially viable. But that could be changing. Space Energy, Inc. has assembled an impressive team of scientists, engineers and business people, putting together what Sage calls "a rock-solid commercial platform" for their company. And given the current looming issues of growing energy needs and climate change, Space Energy, Inc. could be in the right place at the right time. Click here to view the article. (2/19)

Spacehab Becomes Astrotech (Source: NASA Watch)
Spacehab is changing its corporate name to Astrotech Corp. The shareholders of the Company's common stock authorized the corporate name change at the annual meeting held on Feb. 10, 2009. Spacehab has filed for and received approval for the name change with the state of Washington. "Astrotech Corporation is a name that more accurately reflects the Company's current mission and vision for future growth," said Thomas B. Pickens III, Spacehab's chairman and chief executive officer. "By aligning our corporate name with our core business offering, we are communicating to the investment community and customers the Company's new focus." (2/19)

NASA Set to Launch Climate-Change Satellite from California (Source: AIA)
NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory, scheduled to launch from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday, will be tasked with mapping carbon dioxide levels across the globe. "OCO will be making one of the most challenging measurements of any atmospheric trace gas that has ever been made," according to an official at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Three high-resolution spectrometers from Hamilton Sundstrand Sensor Systems will analyze the light absorption of molecules to measure carbon dioxide and oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. (2/19)

Why Our Space Program Must Continue (Source: WND.com)
A staple of Cold War fiction in the 1980s was the idea that the United States and the Soviet Union would take their rivalry, and its accompanying military buildup, into the final frontier of space. As a boy I had illustrated books on future technology that depicted armed satellites blasting away at each other. The technology that would enable peaceful, laser-armed satellites to clear away "space junk" was the same technology that would enable warring space-nations to take shots at each other's orbiting infrastructure. It all sounded very prophetic, and as a child who loved science fiction and who had a firm belief in the inevitable evolution of daily life into that speculative vision of the near future, I knew it was only a matter of time before such space battles came to pass. Of course, I also had pillowcases with robots on them.

I argue that despite the costs, despite the difficulties and despite the dangers, our continued advance into space, into the universe beyond the envelope of our atmosphere, is necessary for a purely emotional reason. A well-funded, persistent, driven space program is part of giving a nation hope, part of demonstrating to Americans that we as a people can reach for the stars and accomplish great things... Maintaining our commitment to the nation's space program will help us to understand better, and develop technologies to better cope with, problems like the recent satellite collision. (Ask yourself how much of our communications technology relies on satellites; this alone is incredibly important.) That, however, is arguably a short-term goal. In the long term, a commitment to our space program pushes us as a people to continue doing more. Now, more than ever, we need that push. We need that drive. (2/19)

Kohler: Space Florida Achievements Will Ensure Florida's Status as Industry Leader (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
It is unfortunate the Orlando Sentinel chose to print a one-sided article about Space Florida on Sunday ("Critics blast Space Florida as $50M waste"). The article failed the readers and the aerospace industry when it neglected to mention any of the achievements made in ensuring Florida remains a vital space leader for the future. The reporter received volumes of documents, customer-contact information and every financial audit since our inception, none of which was used in the article.

The article cites a $50 million investment in Space Florida, but it doesn't clarify that $35 million was direct funding to support the renovation of an older facility at the Kennedy Space Center, which will now create nearly 400 manufacturing and assembly jobs. The landmark decision by the Air Force to license Launch Complex 36 to Space Florida creates the capability for a number of companies to bring their launch business to Florida. We advocated for the successful Air Force assignment of Launch Complex 40 to SpaceX and provided more than $2 million in cash, facilities and in-kind support that continues today. Click here to view the editorial. (2/19)

Editorial: Toss the Red Tape: Success Depends on New Technology (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The Orlando Sentinel's Sunday editorial, "Failure to launch," brought back memories from my experience as an engineer for a commercial launch program at Cape Canaveral. I was part of the team that rebuilt launchpad 36B and launched the first commercial Atlas II/Centaur in 1991. The editorial says this industry has failed because "Florida has misjudged the commercial space market in some instances, and has been outflanked by the competition in others." Unfortunately, the editorial missed some of the real issues that have plagued this industry.

I interviewed with all of the major companies at Kennedy Space Center. I was offered several jobs, the most impressive of which appeared to be with the space-shuttle program. That was at least until I took a tour of the facilities that included crawling into the main engine compartment of the space shuttle. I felt as if I were touring the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Remember that the space shuttle was developed before the first personal computer ever hit the market.

But a new commercial space program caught my eye, so I took a job at General Dynamics on the Atlas/Centaur commercial space-launch program. During the next three years, I was part of a team that built and launched 12 commercial satellites. But I also learned firsthand how woefully antiquated and obsolete our space program had become. I am a strong advocate for safety, but the work environment in the early stages of the commercial space industry was almost impossible. Every task that is performed on a launchpad at Cape Canaveral is governed by a piece of paper, and you have to wade through an army of bureaucrats in order to get any of this paper approved. Although we were supposed to be a "commercial" launch facility, we were being asphyxiated in a sea of red tape. Click here to view the editorial. (2/19)

Spaceports are Old Tech (Source: ERAU)
Most Floridians believe the Cape is a cutting-edge technology center, but Mr. Waltrip's editorial correctly points out that we're dealing with 1960s era technologies. Florida's reliance on launch operations, and its lack of involvement in more diverse space R&D programs, puts our economy at risk whenever a launch vehicle program ends. The real high-value elements of our nation's space industry are in states that have focused on building strong R&D and manufacturing-based space programs. They ship their state-of-the-art rockets and payloads to Florida so we can truck them to orbit. For states pursuing spaceport development, the launch industry should not be viewed as the real prize, it should be viewed as a capability that can be leveraged to support other types of space enterprise. (2/19)

Skylon Spaceplane Gets Cash Boost (Source: BBC)
An innovative UK launcher concept is to get 1m euros (£900,000) of investment from the European Space Agency (ESA). The Skylon spaceplane would take off from a conventional aircraft runway, carry over 12 tons to orbit and then return to land on the same runway. The money will help prove the vehicle's core technologies, including its Sabre air-breathing rocket engine. Reaction Engines, the company behind the project, believes its reusable launcher could fly within 10 years. (2/19)

Florida Aerospace Company Expands to Huntsville (Source: Huntsville Times)
ASRC Aerospace Corp., an information technology and aerospace engineering company and NASA contractor, has set up a Huntsville operation. "We currently have work with five NASA centers," said Martin McLellan, vice president of ASRC Aerospace, which is based in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Having a presence in Huntsville, he said, better positions the company to add NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center as a partner. Dr. Judy Mobley has been named the director for Huntsville operations and is responsible for expanding business growth supporting Marshall, including the company's bid for Marshall's Information Technology Services contract, to be awarded later this year. (2/19)

Orbital Sciences Profit Falls (Source: MarketWatch)
Orbital Sciences Corp. said fourth-quarter net income fell to $13.2 million from $15.8 million, while revenue rose 11% to $311 million. The rocket maker nudged its 2009 guidance lower, forecasting revenue between $1.15 billion and $1.175 billion. Previously, the company expected revenue between $1.175 billion and $1.2 billion. (2/19)

New Visitor Complex Chief Pushes Space Center's 'Real Stuff' (Source: Florida Today)
William Moore began his new duties as chief operating officer of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex this month. The 57-year-old Atlanta native replaced Dan LeBlanc, who resigned in October after more than 12 years at the complex, the last six as COO. LeBlanc's strong marketing and guidance is credited with pushing the facility to the forefront of Central Florida destinations. The 42-year-old attraction, built as a means for NASA astronauts' and employees' families to view space center operations, draws more than 1.5 visitors annually. Moore comes from the Independence Visitor Center in Philadelphia, which displays the historic Liberty Bell. He will now oversee some 700 employees at the visitor center. (2/19)