A new, satellite-based, 8-hr. weather forecast prototype covering remote areas of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is available to industry as a research tool on the website for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
European Union foreign ministers say they would consider the launch of a satellite by North Korea a “provocative act” that would violate Pyongyang’s U.N. Security Council obligations and merit an international response.
NEW DELHI — The launch of the Indo-French Saral navigational satellite has been delayed until early next year, an Indian space scientist says. The satellite was initially slated to be lofted on Dec. 12 on board the Indian space agency’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C20) – from the space center in Sriharikota in south India.
As Hurricane Sandy wound its way north along the Atlantic Coast in late October, the storm appeared to be on a track to head harmlessly out to sea. But data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) polar orbiting weather satellites indicated that the deadly storm would take a sharp left turn and hit some of the most densely populated regions of the U.S., providing days of warning.
A Washington Outlook item in the Dec. 3 issue (page 23) incorrectly stated the outcome of pre-flight pressure testing on the International Space Station's Unity node. According to NASA, the 1996 tests were halted before the node structural test and flight articles reached the maximum design pressure of 23 psia “based on predefined sensor cutoff data being met.” Those strain gauges were positioned to test anticipated “high stresses on the radial port gussets,” and no cracks were discovered in the hardware by subsequent inspections, NASA says.
Golden Spike Company, a startup initiated by former NASA Associate Administrator Alan Stern, has gathered a group of aerospace companies and spaceflight experts to mount commercial human missions to the Moon. Prices for a two-person surface sortie would start at $1.4 billion, according to Stern, who sees a market in national space agencies, corporations and scientific research.
They could not have timed it better: One day after France launched its second high-resolution Pleiades satellite, shareholders of U.S. commercial imagery provider GeoEye approved a buyout by the company's chief U.S. competitor that will leave Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe operating the largest fleet of high-resolution optical Earth-imaging satellites.
Stratolaunch, the launch-services startup bankrolled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has opened discussions with Orbital Sciences Corp. about modifying one of its rockets for air-launch from the giant airplane it is building with parts from two surplus Boeing 747s. The company turned to Orbital after SpaceX concluded that making the necessary modifications to its Falcon launcher — the original choice for the concept — would not make business sense.
NASA needs a revamp of its strategic plan that follows from a new national consensus on what the agency’s primary mission should be, and what resources it needs to achieve it, according to new reports from the Space Foundation and the National Research Council (NRC).
SHIFTING SEATS: Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.), who was preparing to lead Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, now plans to leave the Senate in January. That leaves the committee in need of a ranking member. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), is next in line. “There is a process for these assignments that will play out, and I look forward to discussing this development with my colleagues on the Commerce Committee,” Thune says in a statement. Thune leads the aviation subcommittee. DeMint was in line to replace Sen.
Powerful solar storms are an imperfectly understood threat to the world’s power grids, but one with the potential for economic damage so catastrophic that the estimated $100-$200 million it would cost annually to deploy an operational space-weather warning system could be trivial by comparison.
HOUSTON — Though committed to launching a U.S. astronaut to the International Space Station for a 12-month flight, the longest space voyage yet by an American, NASA is far from prepared to commit to a succession of 12-month voyages to the orbiting science lab, according to the agency’s ISS program manager and others who expect to gather new insight into the health effects.
