A parachute-deployment test of NASA’s Orion crew capsule Jan. 16 added another level of complexity to the preflight work that must be done before the vehicle’s Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), atop a Delta IV rocket in September.
Space-science units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences are planning two meetings this year designed to bring young scientists from the two countries together for discussions on space astronomy and solar and space physics. The U.S. Space Studies Board and the Chinese academy’s National Space Science Center set up meetings in Beijing and Los Angeles for space scientists under 40 to “build informal bridges between the space-science communities in China and the United States,” according to a joint announcement.
NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency’s lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.
PARIS — Europe’s nearly one-year delay in finalizing the design of a service module expected to fly on NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew exploration vehicle will not hold up a planned test flight of the capsule slated for 2017, says European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain. “I have promised NASA that the delay in the service module preliminary design review (PDR) will not lead to a delay in delivery,” Dordain told journalists at an annual meeting where he detailed the agency’s €4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) budget for 2014.
PARIS — European Space Agency (ESA) member states like the idea of extending International Space Station (ISS) operations to 2024, as proposed by the Obama administration during an annual meeting of space agency chiefs in Washington Jan. 9-10. But ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain says the 20-nation space agency can do little more than voice support for the extension until it secures funding from member states for Europe’s continued participation in the ISS through the end of this decade.
Managers at NASA are generally pleased with the level of funding the agency received in the omnibus spending bill Congress adopted this week for the remainder of fiscal 2014, but they aren’t sure it will support the planned 2017 first flights of one or more commercial crew vehicles.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is continuing to raise concerns about the agency’s efforts to re-establish U.S. human launch capabilities — both through commercial ventures and government-led initiatives to resume human deep space exploration — in its most recent annual assessment. The concerns, outlined Jan. 15 in the independent ASAP’s 2013 annual report, are focused on presumed underfunding as the two development initiatives mature.
NASA expects almost $800 million over post-sequestration 2013 funding levels under the 2014 omnibus, allowing the agency to maintain its ongoing space and aeronautics activities without an apparent need for major changes. One question remains: whether $696 million for the Commercial Crew Program is enough for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) beginning in 2017 as planned. NASA managers have said they need the full 2014 request, $821 million, to stay on schedule.
In this era of ostensible federal austerity, flat budget lines or those that are congressionally increased are the new “up.” In that sense, most federal aerospace, civil aviation and defense programs were seeing blue skies for now as the fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill moved through the Capitol last week.
Bill Swanson (left), Raytheon's CEO and chairman, is scheduled to hand over the chief executive's office to current Chief Operating Officer Tom Kennedy on March 31. Swanson will remain chairman at least while the Waltham, Mass.-based defense prime contractor transitions to Kennedy's leadership.
The history of space exploration generally has been a march toward greater ambition, risk, complexity and cost. The first launch vehicles were guided missiles carrying the simplest of satellites, and the objective—orbit—was simple and straightforward. Earlier this month, circumstance presented a unique opportunity to observe how the international space-exploration endeavor has evolved over more than 50 years.
The In Orbit column of Jan. 13 (p. 16) incorrectly described the service module for the first flight test of NASA's Orion multipurpose crew vehicle as “European-built.” It will be manufactured by Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
HOUSTON — NASA’s chief scientist Ellen Stofan is among those pleased with the $17.6 billion top line for the agency included in the $1.1 trillion 2014 Omnibus appropriations bill making its way through Congress this week. The compromise spending plan that lifts NASA away from the 2013 sequester budget cuts includes $5.15 billion for science programs, or $133.4 million more than proposed by the White House for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
Top NASA officials took advantage of the recent gathering of space agency chiefs in Washington to look for ways to broaden cooperation with China, including rare direct talks with Chinese space leaders.
EUTELSAT 9B: International Launch Services (ILS) will launch Eutelsat 9B for Eutelsat Communications in 2015 on a Proton rocket, the Reston, Va., company said Jan. 15. Space Systems of Airbus Defense and Space will build the 5,300-kg (11,700-lb.) Ku-band satellite, which will be positioned at 9 deg. E. Long. to deliver service via 66 transponders.
NEW DELHI — India hopes to launch Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar exploration mission, with an indigenous rover and lander, aboard a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) by 2017. The mission will be a totally Indian program, without any participation from frequent industrial partner Russia. “This time it will be an indigenous launch ... which intends to demonstrate our capability to soft-land on the lunar surface,” says K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Controllers at the European Space Agency’s facility in Darmstadt, Germany, nudged the $1.3 billion Gaia spacecraft into its operational orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrangian point on Jan. 14, setting the mission up to produce a 3D star map of the galaxy with unprecedented precision. The final trajectory adjustment required only a brief burn of the spacecraft’s thrusters, following an almost 2-hr. firing last week to set up the orbit around the imaginary point 1.5 million km from Earth on the side opposite the Sun.
NOAA BOOST: The fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill being considered this week in Congress would, if enacted, provide the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with $1.89 billion for continued development of its satellite systems, $207 million more than last fiscal year.
Funding for U.S. civil space and aeronautics work would bounce back by almost $800 million above the levels set by sequestration in 2013 under the omnibus appropriations bill working its way through Congress via a bipartisan budget agreement, allowing NASA to maintain its ongoing activities without an apparent need for major changes.
NASA PROTEST: Wyle Laboratories has prevailed in a bid dispute with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) over a potential $1.76 billion NASA award for medical, biomedical and health services supporting human spaceflight programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained, or supported, Wyle’s protest in a Dec. 27, 2013, decision, published Jan. 13. Since NASA announced the contract opportunity in July 2012, SAIC split into two companies — one retaining the SAIC name and another called Leidos.
The fifth and final next-generation narrowband communications satellite being built for the U.S. Navy by Lockheed Martin has entered its first system test phase. The Lockheed Martin team recently mated the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) system module, which carries mission system equipment, and the core—which houses propulsion—with a key antenna for the satellite.
