PARIS — France and Britain have signed a framework agreement on space cooperation in the areas of Earth observation, telecommunications, space-based weather forecasting and technology. The agreement, signed during a Franco-British defense summit held at RAF Brize Norton in southern England Jan. 31, includes an initial U.K. investment of £15 million ($25 million) for key instruments being developed for the next generation of European weather satellites.
A small Canadian electro-optical satellite has started contributing data to the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, monitoring orbiting objects at 6,000-40,000 km (3,700-24,850 mi.) as part of the North American effort to improve space situational awareness and prevent collisions.
With U.S. funding promised until at least 2024, the scientists and engineering managers charged with getting maximum use out of the International Space Station are touting its unique advantages as a place to observe the Earth from above. Two of NASA's five Earth-science missions planned this year will operate on the ISS, and the non-profit organization set up to attract commercial users to the station has just released a request for Earth-observation proposals. Both reflect the growing presence of Earth-facing instruments on the massive orbital outpost.
Water, the stuff of life, can also be deadly if there is too much of it, or not enough, or if it is too cold or hot. A new $1.2 billion international spacecraft mission will give scientists, forecasters and first-responders a map of where the water is on Earth, with unprecedented detail, every 3 hr.
After two years of contentious debate, the European Commission has a freshly minted budget of €10 billion ($13.7 billion) over seven years with which to complete and launch two new flagship space programs: the Galileo satellite navigation constellation and the Copernicus Earth-observation system. With some half-dozen spacecraft dedicated to the two programs set to launch this year, the EC's next task is to figure out how to use them.
NASA will spend $12.7 million on seven research projects intended to inaugurate the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-developed Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), a fundamental physics payload scheduled for a 2016 launch to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will support studies of ultra-cold quantum gas phenomena in the absence of gravity. The funding should support the seven projects, five of them headed for the ISS and two for further ground development, for up to five years, NASA announced Jan. 29.
CYBER CHIEF: U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Michael Rogers has been nominated to replace Gen. Keith Alexander as the commander of U.S. Cyber Command, director of the NSA and the chief of the Central Security Service. Rogers currently commands U.S. Fleet Cyber Command. This makes him the third person named Mike Rogers in a high-profile national security position. He joins lawmakers Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who leads the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who leads a House Armed Services panel on strategic forces.
Pending anticipated second-quarter 2014 FCC certification of a new “Sat-Fi” device, Globalstar Inc. plans to offer worldwide voice and data satellite-transmission services through traditional Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones, tablets and laptops in the hands of users outside of cellular range.
Engineers from two NASA field centers and the University of Texas have started subscale testing designed to ensure the acoustic loads generated by the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) don’t damage the big rocket or its ground infrastructure during liftoff.
The Pentagon’s chief test official is recommending that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) consider a redesign of its Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV), the hit-to-kill mechanism used to down ballistic missiles mid-flight in the Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) System.
LOS ANGELES — Despite continuing cutbacks in U.S. military and space spending, Boeing’s position on flagship defense and space initiatives produced a strong 2013 for the company’s Defense, Space & Security sector and will continue to sustain it into 2014.
BRUSSELS — Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stephane Israel praised the European Commission for its loyalty in lofting EU satellites with the Evry, France-based launch consortium, but said the company must lower costs immediately to compete with new entrants to the market that are backed by government financing.
The human exploration of Mars by the 2030s is within reach if global space powers — supported by sustained budgets and political backing — cooperate to overcome the technical hurdles, according to Explore Mars, Inc. The four-year-old Massachusetts nonprofit advocates focused use of the International Space Station (ISS), the possible introduction of a modest, crewed cis-lunar outpost in the 2020s and carefully paced robotic missions to achieve the goal.
HOUSTON — Spacewalking cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy met with mixed results Jan. 27 during a second attempt to install a pair of Canadian commercial Earth imaging cameras outside the International Space Station (ISS). The task outside the Russian segment of the outpost proved so troublesome during a late-December attempt that the two men were forced to retrieve the just-installed imagers for internal troubleshooting during a frustrating excursion that grew to a Russian record 8 hr., 7 min.
APPLAUSE: The U.S. commercial satellite industry is cheering lawmakers and awaiting a congressionally mandated strategy this year that could help push the Pentagon toward multiyear leases and hosted payloads providing satcom services. The fiscal 2014 defense authorization act requires the Defense Department to provide Congress with an analysis of financial or other benefits of doing multiyear acquisitions.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V sent NASA’s newest Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) toward its geostationary orbit late Jan. 23, beefing up the constellation as demand for space network links grows with the utilization of the International Space Station (ISS) and a swarm of scientific satellites.
Two of the five Earth-science missions NASA plans to launch this year will end up on the International Space Station (ISS), which is growing in importance as a relatively low-cost spot to operate downward-looking sensors. The station’s low altitude and relatively high inclination also can give scientists a new perspective for their observations, which typically are taken from sun-synchronous polar orbits.
The spacecraft bus that will power and point the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) passed its critical design review five months early, as the deep-space infrared instrument continues moving toward its targeted 2018 launch date.
The space agencies that operate the International Space Station—and their other spaceflight partners—likely will be using its facilities to prepare for a push to the Moon and beyond, as well as trying to promote its commercial use. Top managers from more than 30 space agencies who met in Washington Jan. 9-10 were unanimous in their consensus joint statement that deep-space exploration should be based on the ISS model.
In its highest and longest ascent to date, NASA's Morpheus prototype planetary lander flew to an estimated 305 ft. and traversed 358 ft. during a 64-sec. free flight at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Jan. 21.
Virgin Galactic plans long-duration hot-fire ground tests of its 47,500-lb.-thrust NewtonTwo kerosene-fueled rocket engine “in the coming months,” following a full-mission duty cycle test of this 3,500-lb.-thrust NewtonOne engine. The work at Virgin's static test stand at Mojave, Calif., supports company plans to supplement its suborbital human spaceflight business by launching small satellites from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.
