BRUSSELS — The European Space Agency (ESA) is seeking ideas for an orbital waste-management service capable of grabbing defunct satellites circling in low Earth orbit and disposing of them through controlled reentry into the atmosphere. By year-end, the 20-nation space agency plans to issue a tender for up to three industry study contracts dealing with concepts for orbital-debris removal o be awarded early next year.
As Iridium readies to launch its Aireon global aviation monitoring venture, the level of investment to come from partner Nav Canada remains in question. Iridium established Aireon in June to provide global aircraft tracking capability through Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers to be built into Iridium NEXT, the McLean, Va.-based satellite fleet operator’s second-generation communications satellite constellation scheduled to launch in 2015.
As Iridium readies to launch its Aireon global aviation monitoring venture, the level of investment to come from partner Nav Canada remains in question. Iridium established Aireon in June to provide global aircraft tracking capability through Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers to be built into Iridium NEXT, the McLean, Va.-based satellite fleet operator’s second-generation communications satellite constellation scheduled to launch in 2015.
ALL GROWN UP: The U.S. Air Force’s second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite has completed its on-orbit testing in preparation for transfer for operational use. The satellite, built by Lockheed Martin, was launched in May. In addition to the on-orbit testing of its own systems, it also executed trials to link with AEHF-1.
Europe’s second Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), considered by some forecasters the best of its kind in the world, has gone into service on Eumetsat’s Metop-B polar-orbiting weather satellite. Developed by France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Thales Alenia Space, the IASI measures infrared wavelengths across 8,461 different spectral channels to generate high-resolution vertical profiles of the atmosphere’s temperature and humidity. The data is crucial to numerical weather prediction models.
STORM WEATHERED: An Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket stage, on its seaside launch pad at Wallops Island, Va., for an upcoming hot-fire test, “looks to be in pretty good shape” after weathering Hurricane Sandy. Wallops was evacuated for the storm, leaving the Antares first stage in position on the pad and the nearby horizontal processing facility locked down. While the processing facility had already weathered one severe storm, it was the first time for Antares flight hardware. After a quick inspection Oct.
PARIS and NAPLES, Italy — French space agency CNES is studying next-generation launch vehicle concepts for a modular Ariane 6 that would use existing technologies and production facilities to replace the cumbersome, costly and commercially reliant Ariane 5 of today.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student believes that with enough warning — as much as 20 years — a paintball-shooting spacecraft might be the best way to divert an asteroid from an extinction-level collision with Earth.
HOUSTON — NASA says operations aboard the International Space Station should not be affected if the SpaceX CRS-2 cargo delivery mission currently slated for January slips as a result of the ongoing investigation into the first-stage engine loss that occurred on the Oct. 7 CRS-1 mission. The supply cache delivered to the station in early to mid-2011 by the now-retired space shuttle placed the six-person orbiting science lab on a firm footing well into 2013, according to Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager.
HOUSTON — Spacewalking U.S. and Japanese astronauts plan to re-activate an older thermal control system radiator as part of a strategy to circumvent a small but growing ammonia leak on the International Space Station’s oldest solar power truss. The six- to seven-hour outing by NASA’s Sunita Williams, the station’s commander, and Akihiko Hoshide is scheduled for Nov. 1 at 8:15 a.m. EDT and will take the two astronauts to the far port side of the orbiting science lab’s 356-ft.-long solar power truss.
Blue Origin will use test results with its suborbital New Shepherd crew vehicle of the pusher-type launch-abort system it developed with NASA funding to “inform” the design of its planned orbital space vehicle. The Oct. 19 test at the company range near Van Horn, Texas, used a commercially procured solid-fuel rocket to boost a full-up New Shepherd to an altitude of 2,307 ft., with thrust vector control during powered flight, separate attitude control during coast and a parachute recovery 1,630 ft. away from the starting point.
Northrop Grumman is prime contractor on the James Webb Space Telescope, but its most notable play in the human-spaceflight arena was the Lunar Excursion Module that landed six crews on the surface of the Moon. Now, as NASA awaits the outcome of the upcoming U.S.
Orbital Technologies Corp. (Orbitec), a Madison, Wisc.-based space-technology company, has flight tested a version of the 30,000-lb.-thrust liquid-propellant rocket engine it is developing for the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Upper Stage Engine Program (Ausep) and other in-space applications.
SASSENAGE, France — A Franco-German accord as to how the European Space Agency (ESA) will pay its portion of common operating costs associated with the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017-20 could founder under a roughly €480 million ($650 million) shortfall in ESA’s €4 billion budget for the orbiting outpost through the end of the decade.
SASSENAGE, France — With less than a month before European Space Agency (ESA) ministers meet to set the agency’s multiyear spending plan, a Franco-German compromise is emerging in the debate over the future of European launchers.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 30 - Nov. 1 — 15th Biennial Helicopter Military Operations Technology Specialists' Meeting, Crowne Plaza Williamsburg, Fort Magaruder, Va. For more information go to www.vtol.org/events/helmot-xv. Oct. 30 - 31 — 2012 Coast Guard Innovation Expo, Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.org/exhibits/3230.
ANOTHER HURDLE: The proposed $1 billion sale of Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) has cleared its antitrust review at the U.S. Department of Justice, SSL parent Loral Space & Communications announced Oct. 26. Loral now expects that any further requirements for the deal, “all of which are within the parties’ control, will be satisfied.” The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States cleared the sale last month. SS/L has said it expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter.
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) is ready for environmental testing at NASA’s Ames Research Center, following installation of the last of its three instruments.
