In the 1960s, NASA had a couple of ways to get to the surface of the Moon. They came together in this famous November 1969 photo of Apollo 12 Commander Pete Conrad examining the Surveyor 3 robotic lander, with the lunar module Intrepid that brought him to the Moon parked on the horizon. Those days are long gone now, but the U.S. space agency still wants to go to the Moon—for science and for exploration experiments.
After receiving initial FAA certification in March of a system combining satellite-based communications with helicopter health and usage monitoring systems (HUMS), Honeywell aims to evolve the capability for inflight broadband connectivity on passenger airliners. (Photo: Inmarsat)
PARIS — Turkey advanced plans for developing a new launch vehicle July 11, signing an agreement with national missile-maker Roketsan for the pre-conceptual design phase of the new launcher, according to Turkey’s defense ministry.
In a sign that NASA’s Texas footprint is still changing two years after the shuttle program’s retirement, Johnson Space Center Deputy Director Steve Altemus will retire this month to lead Houston-based startup Intuitive Machines, which will offer NASA-honed engineering expertise to the global energy and health care sectors as well as commercial aerospace.
NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (Casis) must strive harder to make full use of the International Space Station (ISS) if taxpayers are to recoup returns on its substantial assembly and annual operating costs, according to NASA Inspector General Paul Martin.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) has settled on the basic design of the Ariane 6, the next-generation launch vehicle that will succeed Europe’s heavy-lift Ariane 5. Known as the “Multi P Linear” concept, the launch vehicle will comprise four solid-fueled boosters that make up the rocket’s first and second stages, topped by a cryogenic third stage based on the Vinci engine, which is being developed by the Snecma motors division of France’s Safran as part of a midlife upgrade to the current Ariane 5, known as Ariane 5ME.
HOUSTON — Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Luca Parmitano extended power cabling across the outside of the International Space Station’s U.S. segment for a future Russian lab, pre-staged utility lines and hardware to deal with potential cooling and power system failures and retrieved external science experiments during a NASA-sponsored July 9 spacewalk.
PARIS — Arianespace will loft the Eutelsat 25B and Indian G-Sat 7 satellites together on an Ariane 5 by the end of August, following the launch of Europe’s Alphasat I-XL and India’s Insat 3D atop the heavy-lift rocket July 25. The missions will mark the third and fourth of a planned five Ariane 5 launches in 2013, says Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel, who took the helm of the European launch consortium in April.
NEW DELHI — The Indian space agency’s Mars Orbiter Mission is on target to lift off in the third week of October. “The Mars mission is getting ready at our Satellite Centre in Bengaluru [in southern India],” says Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan. “We are planning to start stacking [the launch vehicle] from July 29, and the launch will be any day from Oct. 21 from the spaceport at Sriharikota.” Following the launch, the mission is expected to take eight months to reach Mars.
Bucking their Republican counterparts and the Obama White House, Democrats on the House Science Committee are offering an “alternative” NASA reauthorization that sets a 15-year goal of landing humans on Mars.
Telespazio has been awarded a €216 million ($277 million) contract by the European Satellite Service Provider, ESSP SAS, as part of the European Union’s Egnos satellite navigation overlay program. The eight-year contract was signed in Toulouse by Telespazio CEO Luigi Pasquali and ESSP President Dirk Werquin. It gives the Finmeccanica/Thales-owned satellite services company the lead-subcontractor role to ESSP, a consortium of European air navigation authorities that functions as the Egnos system operator and service provider to the European Commission.
NEW DELHI — India has raised doubts regarding the launch of its second robotic lunar mission — Chandrayaan II — due to development delays with its Russian-furnished lander. Due to launch next year, Chandraayan II will include an unmanned orbiter, a lander supplied by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and a rover to be developed by India for in-situ scientific exploration of the lunar surface.
Telespazio has been awarded a €216 million ($277 million) contract by the European Satellite Service Provider, ESSP SAS, as part of the European Union’s Egnos satellite navigation overlay program.
Any launch vehicle that flies as often as Russia's Proton is bound to have its share of mishaps. The venerable heavy-lifter has flown 388 missions since its first in 1965, 45 of which have been deemed total or partial failures.
How does a squadron charged with testing navigation and guidance systems in extreme jamming know where its aircraft and weapons are and how they are performing when GPS is jammed? The answer from next year on will be by using a local positioning system that has the potential to back up GPS wherever jamming or spoofing could have disastrous results, such as critical infrastructure, airports or guiding unmanned aircraft in civil airspace.
Business was booming for Raytheon at the recent Paris air show. The defense electronics giant's “hospitality chalet”—a two-story structure set up for VIP meetings—was packed with prospective buyers from places such as Oman, Qatar and Japan. “This is the busiest I have ever been at an air show,” proclaimed CEO Bill Swanson, who is aiming to raise exports to 30% of Raytheon's sales, up from an impressive 26%.
After two decades rising through the executive ranks at communications services provider Amdocs Management, Dov Baharav had no defense experience when he was tapped in 2011 to serve as chairman of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). During his tenure at Amdocs, Baharav oversaw complex financial systems and high-tech development projects in the lead-up to the dot-com bust, when he was appointed CEO.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
Spaceborne study of the Sun has produced spectacular images like these over the years, but still leaves much about our nearest star cloaked in mystery. Now an ultraviolet (UV) telescope with unusually high spectral bandwidth will try to solve one of the most puzzling—why temperatures vary so dramatically between the Sun's surface and the upper limits of its turbulent atmosphere.
