NEW DELHI — India expects to make another attempt to launch the GSAT-14 communications satellite aboard its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in December, a senior space scientist says. Plans to loft GSLV-D5 were scrubbed on Aug. 19 just hours before the scheduled liftoff from the launch pad in south India, due to a fuel leak in the second stage of the rocket engine.
New findings from India’s 2008-09 Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter mission point to an internal source of water on the Moon detected in magmatic deposits at an equatorial crater peak, according to NASA-funded research led by scientists from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).
BEIJING — China’s lunar exploration program will meet its long-standing target to launch the Chang’e 3 sample-return mission this year, but only just, according to a statement from a government authority with oversight of space activities. The mission will go ahead at the end of the year, says the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.
HOUSTON — Japan looks upon a 2014 opportunity to have a national representative command the International Space Station as a chance to demonstrate the country’s growing capabilities in the field of human spaceflight, according to the astronaut who will shoulder the task. “It means a lot to Japan, especially after becoming a reliable partner in the program,” said Koichi Wakata, a veteran Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut, to an Aug. 28 NASA news briefing.
When it came time to make the 2014 budget request, Pentagon planners made large cuts to major U.S. Air Force airlift programs compared to spending estimates in the 2013 budget plan. In the 2014 request, lines for the C-130J, MC-130J, C-17A and C-5 programs were all cut more than 40% when compared to the 2013 plan for the 2014 outyear. However, two modification lines for the C-130 airframe got big increases. (See charts pp. 6-11.)
HOUSTON — Investigators assisted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are entering the next phase of troubleshooting of the July 16 spacesuit water leak that brought all NASA-sponsored spacewalks outside the six-person orbiting science laboratory to a halt.
MOBILE SATELLITE: The active Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) terminal base grew at a compound annual rate of 10% over the past five years, with more than 2.9 million active MSS terminals deployed on a global basis in 2012, according to Euroconsult. Revenues generated by the six active MSS operators reached $1.5 billion. “The industry remains very concentrated with the leading three operators, Inmarsat, Iridium and Thuraya still accounting for close to 90% and Inmarsat alone having a market share of 55%,” Euroconsult says.
Gregory Johnson, the former NASA astronaut and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, will become executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis), the Florida-based nonprofit selected two years ago by the space agency to manage research across the U.S. National Laboratory elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The appointment is effective Sept. 1, according to an Aug. 26 Casis announcement.
REACTIVATED: NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) will be revived in September to spend another three years discovering and characterizing asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth or be suitable candidates for exploration. NASA anticipates WISE will use its 16-in.
Under pressure from sequestration budget cuts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is delaying the launch of the first of a new breed of weather satellites.
HOUSTON — So far, Mother Nature has not disappointed the 250 scientists, engineers and flight-support personnel participating in a NASA-led airborne research campaign to understand how regional summertime pollution from urban areas, forest fires and other sources influences air quality and climate on a global scale.
Young people seem to be getting the message that engineering offers opportunity: 84,000 U.S. students graduated from universities in 2012 with engineering degrees. That is up 12% from 73,000 just six years ago, according to the National Academies. And despite the downturn in the economy and in federal spending, the aerospace and defense industry continues to provide at least some of that opportunity.
It pays to be the new guy, according to data gathered for the 2013 Aviation Week Workforce Study. Pay for new college graduates rose by 3.4% between 2011 and 2012, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In the aerospace and defense industry, the increase was slightly lower, at 3.2%. Companies with fewer employees worked to retain their workforces, awarding pay increases on average of 4.1%.
The recent rebranding of EADS into Airbus is a superb example of how to justify a top management decision with some strategic rationale that really does not exist. There was clearly an issue with the EADS brand. The name was poorly recognized internationally, but that problem had less to do with the brand itself than with the underlying dynamics within the group.
Space Exploration Technologies Inc. isn't the only space-services company in Hawthorne, Calif., looking for ways to cut launch costs. Established in 1984, tiny Microcosm Inc. has found a way to make strong, lightweight tanks for space applications that it says can handle high pressure as well as the low temperatures needed to hold cryogenic propellants. That capability could come in handy as some new space entrepreneurs look to pressure-fed propulsion systems to loft their payloads.
Aerospace and defense companies large and small plan to hire in 2013. While much of the hiring will replace workers leaving for retirement or a new opportunity, the numbers also include some all-new jobs and new skills.
As a war-weary nation grapples with how to cut military spending and a dysfunctional Congress allows meat-ax budget cuts to fall on the Defense Department and NASA, one might expect that the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) industry's best and brightest talent would be heading for the exits. Indeed, one-in-five A&D professionals under the age of 35 submitted resignations in 2012, up from 12% the year before. The good news: most left to go work for another aerospace company.
When a spacecraft is bound for another planet, examining it up close and personal is a rare opportunity. Senior Editor Frank Morring, Jr. (left) and Los Angeles Bureau Chief Guy Norris did just that with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft during its final stages of integration at Lockheed Martin's facility in Littleton, Colo. Now in preflight preparation at Kennedy Space Center, Maven is scheduled for launch in a 20-day window that opens Nov. 18.
Obituary: Long-serving NASA astronaut, research pilot and U.S. Air Force test pilot C. Gordon Fullerton died Aug. 21 at home in Lancaster, Calif. He was 76. Fullerton, who logged 382 hr. in space on two shuttle missions, was particularly well known for his work at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, where he was a research test pilot for 22 years.
