February 2 News Items

Experts Urge Obama to Extend Shuttle, Refocus NASA on Energy and Climate Concerns (Source: Houston Chronicle)
An assessment of space policy by the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University would send NASA in new directions by giving up missions to the moon and placing a near-term emphasis on energy and climate concerns. The shuttle's 2010 retirement would be postponed until 2015, enabling astronauts to reach the space station without using Russian launch services. The station would become the focus of renewed scientific research.

NASA's Orion moonship capsule, which is to replace the shuttle in 2015 would be down-sized from a six- to three-seat spacecraft for station missions. Orion's Ares 1 rocket launcher, a target of critics because of technical problems, would be cancelled, and NASA would use commercial rockets. NASA would place exploratory resources on the development of a large rocket, something akin to the proposed Ares V, that could initiate human missions to an asteroid or a comet and reach across the globe to undertake those activities with greater international participation. (2/2)

What Future for Midair Rocket Launches? (Source: Daily Yomiuri)
The government has embarked on the development of midair rocket-launching technology, a new method of firing off rockets, in the hope the technique can be put into practical use. In a midair rocket launch, a small rocket takes a satellite into orbit after being launched from a plane over open seas. Such launches have been used by the United States for about 20 years.

Although many countries have been trying to develop midair rocket-launching systems, little attention has so far been paid to the technology in Japan. But the method poses problems, including considerably higher maintenance and repair costs for the rocket-launching airplanes and limits to the size of satellites that can be launched. (2/2)

Space Fashion Design Contest at New York Fashion Week (Source: Fibre2Fashion)
In an exciting departure from the typical luxury fashion shows during its semi-annual New York event, one of the runway shows to be presented during Couture Fashion Week this season will be Space Couture, a sampling of the highly creative winning designs of a series of competitions. This inventive fashion show will be held on Sunday, February 15, 2009 at the world-famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.

The concept behind Space Couture began several years ago as a collaboration between RocketPlane Global, an innovative Oklahoma-based company developing sub-orbital space flight programs, and fashion designers Eri Matsui and Misuzu Onuki. RocktPlane Global was looking to offer edgy fashion choices to their future passengers and Ms. Matsui and Ms. Onuki had the vision of encouraging up-and-coming fashion designers to create extraordinary clothing through competitions that would bring out their most daring fashion skills. Click here to view the article. (2/2)

Alaska's Palin Appoints Weldon to Spaceport Board (Source: Florida Today)
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has appointed former Florida congressman David Weldon to serve on the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. (AADC) board. As Alaska's spaceport authority, AADC operates the Kodiak Island spaceport. Weldon represented a district that is home to the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Palin cited Weldon's experience on the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.

Alaska's 11-member board is entrusted with aerospace-related economic development by working with private companies, state agencies and universities. The Kodiak spaceport was designed to serve private satellite companies but its only launches so far have been for the U.S. military. Editor's Note: Alaska's AADC legislation was based closely on Florida's spaceport legislation in Chapter 331, Part Two, Florida Statutes. (2/2)

NASA and Google Launch Virtual Exploration of Mars (Source: NASA)
NASA and Google have released a new Mars mode in Google Earth that brings to everyone's desktop a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of the Red Planet. Besides providing a rich, immersive 3D view of Mars that will aid public understanding of Mars science, the new mode, Google Mars 3D, also gives researchers a platform for sharing data similar to what Google Earth provides for Earth scientists. (2/2)

Students Call Space Station with Home-Built Radio (Source: Globe and Mail)
Four Toronto college students have accomplished a technological feat that their teachers are calling a first. The Humber College seniors made contact with the International Space Station Monday with a radio system they designed and built themselves. School officials say that, to their knowledge, that's never been accomplished by students at the college level. The project got off the ground about a year ago as the students looked for a way to apply knowledge gained from their radio communication courses. (2/2)

Lockheed Martin Partnership Helps Bay Area Teacher (Source:
More than 80 students from Pescadero Middle School launched model rockets today as part of a new school-wide Rocketry Education Program. The program, designed to build enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math, originated from a teacher's summer fellowship at Lockheed Martin through the Bay Area-based Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME). Chip Harrison, a teacher at Pescadero Middle School, was one of 20 elementary school, middle school, and high school teachers who participated in IISME's fellowship program last year at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif. The IISME organization works to foster a strong, highly skilled workforce in science, technology, engineering and math.

Based on his experience at Lockheed Martin, Harrison initiated a rocketry education program that combines research, experiments, fieldtrips, real-world applications, and actual rocket model development. To fully engage the students and staff, the program also integrates other aspects of the school's curriculum, including elements of the Science, English, History, and Math disciplines. (2/2)

Four Florida School Teams Up for Conrad Awards (Source: Conrad Foundation)
Vote online for the nation’s most innovative high school teams. The Conrad Foundation announced 21 high school teams as finalists in the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards. Tasked with developing innovative products in the fields of personal spaceflight, lunar exploration and renewable energy, teams now need public support for their products. Florida-based finalists include Teknatheos in Orange Park; and three teams from North Miami Beach High School. Finalists will attend the Innovation Summit at NASA Ames Research Center on Apr. 2-4, 2009. Teams will compete for opportunities to commercialize their products. Overall winners will be announced April 4. Visit http://www.conradawards.org for information. (2/2)

Five California School Teams Up for Conrad Awards (Source: Conrad Foundation)
Vote online for the nation’s most innovative high school teams. The Conrad Foundation announced 21 high school teams as finalists in the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards. Tasked with developing innovative products in the fields of personal spaceflight, lunar exploration and renewable energy, teams now need public support for their products. California-based finalists include Latino College Preparatory Academy; Mission San Jose HS; two teams from Milken Community HS; and Los Altos Academy of Engineering. Finalists will attend the Innovation Summit at NASA Ames Research Center on Apr. 2-4, 2009. Teams will compete for opportunities to commercialize their products. Overall winners will be announced April 4. Visit http://www.conradawards.org for information. (2/2)

Northrop Grumman Prototype System Successfully Controls GPS Test Satellite (Source: Globe Newswire)
Northrop Grumman has successfully demonstrated command and control of a Global Positioning System (GPS) IIR-M satellite using its Next Generation Operational Control Segment (OCX) engineering model. The OCX modernization effort will provide mission enterprise control support for the nation's existing GPS Block II and future Block III satellites. The GPS control segment includes satellite command and control, mission planning, constellation management, monitoring stations and ground antennas. The team used its GPS OCX Modernized Capability Engineering Model (MCEM) to successfully command and control a satellite test simulator located at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida, from a Northrop Grumman plant in California. (2/2)

Arianespace Seals Four-Billion-Euro Rocket Deal (Source: AFP)
The European space rocket company Arianespace has struck a four-billion-euro deal to buy launchers from the French aerospace and defence giant EADS. Arianespace ordered 35 Ariane 5 ECA rocket launchers from EADS in a deal worth more than four billion euros (five billion dollars), bringing to 49 the total number of these launchers in production. The contract signed on Friday will "ensure both independent access to space for Europe, and the best launch service and solutions on the market for all of Arianespace's customers," the statement said. (2/2)

Where Do Comets Come From? (Source: New Scientist)
Few cosmic apparitions have inspired such awe and fear as comets. The particularly eye-catching Halley's comet, which last appeared in the inner solar system in 1986, pops up in the Talmud as "a star which appears once in seventy years that makes the captains of the ships err". In 1066, the comet's appearance was seen as a portent of doom before the Battle of Hastings; in 1456, Pope Callixtus III is said to have excommunicated it. Modern science takes a more measured view. Comets such as Halley's are agglomerations of dust and ice that orbit the sun on highly elliptical paths, acquiring their spectacular tails in the headwind of charged particles streaming from the sun. We even know their source: they are Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) tugged from their regular orbits by Neptune and Uranus. (2/2)

NASA Sets Out Altair Lunar Lander Timetable (Source: Flight Global)
NASA has sketched out the development timetable for its return-to-the-Moon Constellation program's Altair lunar lander, aiming toward a long-term target of an unmanned June 2018 in-orbit propulsion test in preparation for a manned Moon mission in 2020. Multiple conceptual design contracts worth at least $42.2 million over four years are to be awarded in June. This year and 2010 will see "base awards" of $1.6 million and $5.6 million respectively. Then, in 2011, there is an "option one" award of $15 million. In 2012 "option two" is worth $20 million. A design, development, test and evaluation award could come in 2013. The DDT&E work is likely to bridge the gap between the preliminary design review and the June 2018 test. (2/2)

Exoplanet Spotted in Hubble Archive (Source: New Scientist)
The first direct image of three extrasolar planets orbiting their host star was hailed as a milestone when it was unveiled late last year. Now it turns out that the Hubble Space Telescope had captured an image of one of them 10 years ago, but astronomers failed to spot it. This raises hope that more planets lie buried in Hubble's vast archive. In 1998, Hubble studied the star HR 8799 in the infrared, as part of a search for planets around young and relatively nearby stars. The search came up empty. Last year, Christian Marois of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues looked at the same star using the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. They discovered three planets, each about 10 times as massive as Jupiter. They succeeded where the Hubble team failed mainly because of new strategies developed to carefully subtract the star's glare, leaving only the faint infrared glow from its planets. (2/2)

Murtha Advocates Splitting Tanker Contract (Source: AIA)
With the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker program still mired in controversy, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., says the $40 billion contract should be split between Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp./EADS. The chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense made his comments during a visit to Mobile, Ala., a potential construction site for Northrop. (2/2)

Disappointed by House Version, NASA Looks to Senate for Stimulus (Source: AIA)
As the Senate takes up debate on a massive economic stimulus bill, NASA supporters are hoping space exploration won't get lost in the crush of infrastructure projects and tax cuts. NASA got only a $50 million boost in the House bill approved last week, while agency officials were looking for $2 billion to speed the Constellation program and repair infrastructure damage from Hurricane Ike. (2/2)

Space Florida Satisfied With Government Accountability Review (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida's president said he is pleased with a recent legislative audit. However, with regard to the requirement for a "Spaceport Master Plan Update", he said Space Florida completed Phase I of the update, but at that time did not yet have LC-36 assigned to the agency. And because traditional Spaceport planning is managed by the Air Force and NASA, Space Florida must work closely those agencies on any state-required plan. He did not see the audit's recommendations affecting Space Florida's current timeline for LC-36 construction. (2/2)

Planetary Demographics and Space Colonization (Source: Space Review)
One reason often proposed for space settlement has been to relieve overpopulation pressures on the Earth. Nader Elhefnawy explains why, because of both demographics and economics, this rationale won't work. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1296/1 to view the article. (2/2)

A Good Job with a Lousy Title: Notes for the Next NASA Administrator (Source: Space Review)
Whomever the Obama Administration selects to be the next NASA administrator is going to face a number of challenging issues. Taylor Dinerman examines those issues, and the importance for NASA to communicate its message to the American public. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1299/1 to view the article. (2/2)

That Was Then... (Source: Space Review)
A common lament of space advocates is that the public today is nowhere near as interested in and supportive of space exploration as they were in the 1960s. Jeff Foust argues that it's time for advocates to update their strategies and tactics for the present and future rather than try and repeat the past. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1298/1 to view the article. (2/2)

Ares I vs. EELV – Advantage Ares I (Source: AmericaSpace.org)
Some Ares I critics have opined that only one of the EELV’s can truly keep America’s Space program from a certain death. Never mind that most of the critics are not engineers and have never read “Space Vehicle Design”, a key graduate-level textbook co-authored by Dr. Mike Griffin. Now comes news that NASA some time ago asked the Aerospace Corporation to do a study weighting the costs and benefits of abandoning Ares I for one of the EELVs. Initially, this Aerospace Corp. study was done using NASA numbers. But United Launch Alliance was invited to participate in the study to assure that the numbers used to analyze the EELV option were the most favorable to the EELV team.

Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has been saying for years that the EELV’s are no substitute for Ares I. The Aerospace Corp. seems to agree. Will that quiet the angry critics of the Ares I in Space blogdom? Unlikely. But what the study will do is keep those in the Obama Administration who feel that the EELV option might be a good one from slowing down Ares I development while a study like that of Aerospace Corp. is completed. Griffin, Cook, et. al. seem to have headed that issue off at the pass. (2/2)

Despite Financial/Political Difficulties NASA Constellation Engineers Move Forward (Source: New Frontiers Blog)
Never mind all of the controversy and confusion surrounding NASA's budget, their new leader and the possible delays for the shuttle retirement; I have some good news for you! NASA's Constellation engineers are actually making some serious progress. Ares I-X will lift off from KSC this summer. It should climb to around 25 miles in a two-minute powered test of the first stage and its recovery system. The test is meant to identify any basic design flaws that need to be fixed before the more complex components are added. No matter how powerful the computers and simulations are, these things just have to be tested the old fashion way. There are countless teams and individuals working on this project and if this test is a successful it will help immeasurably in boosting moral and renewing faith in the whole Constellation program. Not to mention it will help keep it on track for the Design Review scheduled for 2010. (2/2)

Should Europa or Titan be Explored First? (Source: New Scientist)
In February, NASA and European Space Agency officials will meet to decide between two missions to the outer solar system. One mission will aim for Saturn's moon Titan, which boasts Earth-like features including lakes, river systems and dunes. The other mission would send a pair of orbiters to explore Jupiter and some of its satellites. The US contribution will focus on the moon Europa, whose ice-encrusted surface is thought to hide a vast, watery ocean. (2/2)