Chinese officials have declared success for the Shenzhou 8 mission of their manned space program, after the capsule—designed for human transportation but unmanned on this occasion—returned to Earth in western China on Nov. 17. The chief objective of the mission was to show that Shenzhou 8 could dock with the Tiangong 1 orbital laboratory, which was also unmanned. The procedure was executed twice. The next two missions in the manned space program, Shenzhou 9 and 10, are due next year. At least one is likely to be manned.
A State Department official said the U.S. will press for several so-called transparency and confidence-building measures (TCBMs) at next year's Group of Government Experts (GGE) on Outer Space TCBMs established by a United Nations General Assembly resolution. Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, told the U.S.
The In Orbit column of Nov. 14 (p. 24) incorrectly identified Mike Houts, the project engineer on NASA's nuclear-thermal rocket environmental simulator at Marshall Space Flight Center.
A lightweight automatic ground-collision-avoidance system (Auto GCAS) that depends on a terrain database of the entire world housed in a smartphone is being flight tested by NASA.
For U.S. regional airlines, the booming business and comfortable profits of the previous decade must already seem like ancient history. Recent developments at Republic Airways and American Airlines suggest that the new challenges they face, in this decade of change and potential upheaval for their industry, are not about to get any easier.
Conventional wisdom typically holds that harvesting “free” energy from the Sun with giant collectors in space does not make financial sense, at least until Earth's finite supplies of oil, coal and natural gas become so scarce that there's no other choice. The conventionally wise usually suggest that it will make more economic sense to rely on wind power and ground-based solar cells for “green” renewable energy.
Look for the rhetoric over deficit reduction to remain red hot. According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's most recent salvo, $600 billion in additional across-the-board cuts to defense spending over 10 years would mean no more Joint Strike Fighter, no new bomber, no Littoral Combat Ships and no Ground Combat Vehicle program. A congressional “Super Committee” faces a deadline this week to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, or the $600 billion whack job could be set off. Panetta raised the specter that would lead to kills or delays for major programs.
Seventeen senators led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) are asking President Barack Obama to make recovery and destruction of Libya's stockpile of man-portable air defense systems the “utmost” priority. Teams of contractors were sent to Libya to find the Manpads, and last month Army Gen.
NASA again ranks fifth in the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service's annual tally of best places to work in the government, based on a survey of more than 150,000 executive-branch employees. The ranking could not have been timed better for NASA, as the agency has opened recruitment for the 2013 class of astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station and, possibly, Mars. NASA will accept applications through Jan. 27, 2012, and expects to begin training in the summer of 2013.
Fresh from an Oval Office ceremony where President Barack Obama signed an executive order setting “bold goals for agencies to reduce spending on travel,” Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver (back row, center, in photo) heads to Antarctica. Obama's order seeks a 20% reduction by 2013 in the cost of travel, printing, devices like smartphones and laptops, and “swag--the unnecessary plaques, clothing and other promotional items that agencies purchase.” Garver's task in Antarctica, says NASA, will be “to evaluate activities of the U.S.
When manufacturers set out to define a new aircraft, they always say their product decisions are driven by long discussions with airlines. But do the airframers really listen? As Boeing, Embraer and ATR work on defining new aircraft to enter service toward the end of the decade, Airbus is experiencing how dangerously wrong things can go when key customers differ with product decisions.
As Embraer embarks on talks with customers about defining its second generation of E-Jets, the aircraft maker is mulling revisions to its product lineup. One is whether it will proceed with the upgrade on the smallest member of the family, the E-170. “Now, the -170 is a question mark,” says Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, president of Embraer Commercial Aviation.
Widespread concerns about aircraft-delivery financing are not enough to spur Airbus and Boeing to delay plans to increase output. The huge backlogs that both sport provide one confidence-booster, with Airbus in particular seeing strong growth as it anticipates a record order intake this year.
The U.S. has built, flown, pointed and triggered a missile designed specifically to carry a directed-energy weapon. That payload, expected to be operational soon, will be able to disrupt, shut down, spoof or damage electrical systems, but little has been revealed about the project.
Italy's emergency government is dealing with a dire financial situation that will force substantial cuts in both the defense procurement budget and investment, and flagship provider Finmeccanica is set to feel the brunt of the fallout. Details of Finmeccanica's first reactions emerged last week when the company announced third-quarter financial results that show it swung to a loss equaling its profit for the same quarter a year before.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Amy Svitak (Paris)
Space agency chiefs from the U.S., Europe and Russia are setting up talks aimed at finding a way to work toward a Mars sample-return mission in the face of budget uncertainty in the U.S. that threatens to upend the joint effort worked out by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Airlines, airports and the government have long been at odds over who is responsible when there is trouble in the air transportation system. Judging from the recent $900,000 fine assessed against American Eagle for violating the so-called tarmac rule, regulators now know where to pin the blame, though.
If Russia drops an extra “royalty” imposed on airlines flying across Siberia, it could shave as much as $100 per passenger from round-trip flights between Europe and Asia—and help level the playing field for European airlines vying for passengers with competitors from the Middle East.
The New Zealand government is planning a wide-ranging overhaul of its aviation policy framework, in an effort to improve access to overseas markets and make its regulatory process more flexible.
With the merger between LAN Airlines and TAM Grupo now in the final stages of approval, Latin American commercial aviation is entering the next stage in its rapid development. The deal has already had a deep impact on competitors in the region and it will shift the balance of power between the global alliances in one of the world's major growth markets.
Air traffic is growing fast in most of Latin America, but vastly differing economic policies, ranging from strict state control to open markets, are still a major hurdle for air transport in parts of the region.
It has been an eventful year for Brazil's two largest carriers, marked with consolidation efforts both at home and abroad and continued expansion, albeit at a more conservative rate than planned. Despite the best efforts of Brazil's many startups (see p. 55) the domestic market is dominated by Grupo TAM and GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes, which combined provide close to 80% of the country's air services. And while organic growth is powering some of this dominance, the two airlines are also trying to acquire new capacity to maintain their positions.
