EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Boeing officials say that they are not out of the precision timing and navigation business, despite having lost the $1.8 billion, winner-take-all development contract for the next generation of GPS satellites to Lockheed Martin five years ago.
LOS ANGELES and HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Boeing hopes by year’s end to secure its first sale of a new family of small satellites unveiled by the company this year and dubbed Phantom Phoenix. Executives declined to say whether this first customer would be commercial or supporting national security missions for the U.S. government. But Craig Cooning, vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, says talks could culminate in an announcement by the end of the year.
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), acting in partnership with NASA’s human research program, plans to establish a Center for Space Radiation Research—budgeted at $2 billion annually—to focus on the effects of space radiation on astronauts assigned to deep-space missions. NSBRI issued a request for applications (RFA) on Aug. 14, seeking proposals from U.S research teams from academia, federal research centers, the private sector and labs established by state and local governments.
Lost-link complications may have contributed to the suspected crash of an unmanned aircraft taking part in a NASA environmental survey in international airspace in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska on July 26.
Space Systems/Loral (SSL) says it has been selected to build a commercial communications satellite for Latin American satellite operator Star One, a subsidiary of Brazilian telecom company Embratel. SSL announced the contract July 18, though the customer was not disclosed.
The U.S. Navy's Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) effort has garnered lots of headlines for the innovations it represents, but the service is trying to use the program to prod the acquisition world into new thinking. And while seemingly bureaucratic, the new approach might just help the Navy land its desired Uclass fleet even as the military and intelligence sectors enter a long-term austere budget environment.
Speaking of austerity, the full effect of the 2011 Budget Control Act and its annual sequestration limits is likely to force the Pentagon to take a major near-term hit in its research, development and procurement accounts for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
Finally, NASA is rolling out a new “strategic vision” for aeronautics that focuses civil aviation research on six themes. But with no new money, work that does not align with the main thrusts will be reduced. The strategy is based on understanding emerging global trends, including new competitors for U.S.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Department is working to designate permanent areas of the Arctic where small UAVs can operate 24/7 for research and commercial purposes, with the first approved operations coming this summer. The Arctic airspace comes on top of six congressionally mandated domestic test centers the FAA is racing to identify in a closely watched announcement expected by the end of this year. So far, 25 potential centers in 24 states have submitted proposals for the sites, Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari told the AUVSI conference.
Spacecraft manufacturers in Europe and the U.S. are finding new business in Brazil's emerging satellite market, with Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Space Systems/Loral (SSL) tapped in recent weeks to build new commercial spacecraft. Brazil, the world's seventh-largest economy, is expected to spend roughly $2 billion between 2012-15 on new civil and military space initiatives.
Science managers have conceded failure in attempting to restore the Kepler Space Telescope to full functionality, and will focus on what the telescope can do with only two of its four reaction wheels working. Designed to find extra-solar planets by detecting the faint flicker in light from distant stars when planets pass in front of them, Kepler lost the pointing accuracy it needs for the task when a second wheel failed in May.
COMMERCIAL CREW: NASA says it will spend $55 million in fiscal 2014 to fund new milestone payments to the three companies developing commercial crew transport vehicles under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) effort. Boeing is due to receive a $20 million payment for a spacecraft safety review in July 2014, while SpaceX will receive the same amount for a Dragon parachute test in November of this year.
NASA’s budget-constrained approach to the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) faces an array of obstacles that could jeopardize key flight test plans and leave the U.S. unable to place astronauts on the surface of planetary bodies well into the next decade at best, according to a new assessment from the agency’s inspector general.
Virgin Galactic has signed up 625 individuals for its planned suborbital spaceflights, lining up revenue of at least $125 million, in what CEO George Whitesides asserts is a strong sign of the excitement and potential of commercial space ventures.
MIDWAY POINT: NASA’s $1.1 billion Juno mission reached the midpoint in its circuitous, 1.76 billion-mi. journey to Jupiter on Aug. 12. With an anticipated arrival at Jupiter of July 4, 2016, the spacecraft will maneuver into a polar orbit to probe the structure and atmosphere below the cloud cover and search for evidence of a solid core. Juno was launched on Aug. 5, 2011, and will fly past the Earth in October of this year for a gravity boost.
A NASA-assembled Science Definition Team (SDT) is backing a Europa lander as the centerpiece for a U.S. mission to assess the habitability of the ice-covered Jovian moon. Top lander mission priorities should include an investigation of the composition and chemistry of the ocean beneath Europa’s vast ice shell; characterization of the thickness, uniformity and dynamics of the ice layer; and studies of Europa’s human-scale geology.
