Despite the fact that the deal creates a monopoly for certain advanced propulsion systems, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said June 11 that it will not challenge GenCorp’s acquisition of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for about $550 million. Approval was given “primarily because the Department of Defense wishes to see the transaction go forward for national security reasons,” the FTC said.
BEIJING — Now classifying its Shenzhou spacecraft as operational equipment, not experimental, China launched its fifth manned space mission on June 11. The objectives of the 15-day Shenzhou 10 mission are to further develop China’s technologies for docking and supporting human life in space, laying the groundwork for the space station that is supposed to be operational around 2020. With Shenzhou 10, the phase aimed at perfecting docking and spacewalking techniques should be complete.
NASA’s long-lived Opportunity rover is rolling toward a new destination at Endeavour Crater on Mars, following one of the nine-year mission’s most striking discoveries, a rock rich in clay minerals that points to an early, biologically friendly era dominated by water with a neutral chemistry.
NEW DELHI — India’s plans to loft France’s SPOT-7 satellite and six other small international spacecraft by early next year reflect a boost in demand for India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in the global market, according to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). “We are getting launch orders from around the world,” a senior ISRO official says.
Reauthorization of the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA) – and its federal indemnification coverage and potential new federal mandates over seeking informed-consent waivers from launch participants and crew — could be hot topics as U.S. lawmakers and industry prepare to update the nearly decade-old law this year.
Switzerland's Solar Impulse team overcame storms in the Midwest U.S. to fly the solar-powered prototype, HB-SIA, from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Lambert St. Louis International Airport on the third leg of its Across America 2013 cross-country flight.
In what could be the biggest shake-up of U.S.-funded science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) promotional efforts since the dawn of the space age, the Pentagon, NASA and Department of Homeland Security are set to lose many of their STEM programs.
KOUROU, French Guiana — The European Space Agency’s (ESA) fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4) launched atop an Ariane 5 ES heavy-lift rocket from the Guiana Space Center here June 5, sending more than 20,000 kg (44,000 lb.) of cargo and fuel to resupply the International Space Station (ISS).
MOONWARD: The Republican chairman of the House Space subcommittee is doubling down on his preference for NASA to prioritize returning astronauts to the Moon, even as the embattled agency continues promoting its asteroid-capture plans. Rep. Steven Palazzo (Miss.) told the ABA Forum on Air and Space Law in Washington June 6 that while the ultimate goal is landing humans on Mars, returning to the Moon is the logical next step. Why? “We have other countries that are aggressively pursuing space exploration programs, and the Moon is one of their specific destinations,” he says.
An Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL air-launched rocket is in final preparation to send a NASA scientific satellite into polar orbit to study a poorly understood region of the Sun’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (Iris) will combine an ultraviolet telescope and a multi-channel imaging spectrograph to study the interface region between the visible surface of the Sun and its upper atmosphere, which is the source of most of the Sun’s UV radiation.
KOUROU, French Guiana — French space agency CNES and the European Space Agency (ESA) are evaluating near-term options for boosting the payload capacity of the Ariane 5 ECA through hardware improvements that officials say could quickly enhance the launch vehicle’s performance ahead of a planned midlife upgrade already underway.
International Launch Services (ILS) successfully placed the SES-6 satellite into a super-synchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) atop a Russian Proton launch vehicle June 3. The Proton lifted off from Pad 39 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying the Astrium-bult SES-6, which weighed over 6 metric tons at liftoff. After a 15-hr., 31-min. mission, the satellite was placed into the target orbit by the Proton launcher. The launch marks the Reston, Va.-based company’s second SSTO mission with the Proton vehicle.
SATS BANKROLLED: The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a $343.3 million direct loan to Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) to finance the purchase of two Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) communications satellites, plus launch services. SS/L is building AsiaSat 6, a C-band satellite, and AsiaSat 8, a mixed Ku/Ka-band satellite, under a contract announced in November 2011. The launches, to be carried out by SpaceX, are planned for the first half of 2014.
Boeing’s seven-person CST-100 spacecraft has completed integrated wind-tunnel testing of scaled versions of the capsule and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V launch vehicle as well as oxygen flow assessments for the two-engine Centaur upper stage.
Gravity-mapping data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) orbiters and the computer simulation of millions of years of lunar cooling have given planetary scientists a better understanding of the variations in the Moon’s gravity that can throw lunar orbiters off course.
