With enough money, NASA plans to begin flying its astronauts to the International Space Station before the end of 2017, but nongovernment test pilots may make the trip in one or more of the commercial crew vehicles in development before then. Those private pilots could wind up training their NASA customers to operate the orbital spaceflight vehicles now in development with government backing, as the U.S. space agency moves to hand over post-shuttle access to low Earth orbit to commercial operators.
PARIS — Russia’s Yamal 402 telecommunications satellite has successfully passed in-orbit checkout and is ready to begin operational service in its final location at 54.9 deg. E. Long., nearly a month after the premature shutdown of a Briz M upper stage on Dec. 9 left the Ku-band spacecraft in the wrong orbit.
PARIS — European launch services provider Arianespace says it generated sales of €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) spread across 10 launches in 2012, a 30% increase over 2011 and a record that will see the company break even for the year, with the help of annual price supports financed by the European Space Agency (ESA) to keep the commercial launch consortium from operating at a loss.
BEIJING — China has declared its Beidou satellite navigation system fully operational, although the service remains limited to most of the Asia-Pacific region. The operating office says it is “accelerating” construction of the system, but repeats its longstanding commitment to achieve global coverage by about 2020; no earlier possibility is mentioned.
Final prelaunch tests will begin Jan. 11 for NASA’s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission now that Lockheed Martin Space Systems has completed integrating the science instruments with the spacecraft at its Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
HOUSTON — U.S. and Russian medical experts will draw from seven broad areas as they establish a research agenda in early 2013 for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station flown by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, test cosmonaut from RSC Energia. The ISS veterans were selected in late November by the U.S. and Russian space agencies to train for the long flight expected to launch in March 2015 and potentially reveal health or performance concerns for future human deep space exploration.
planet candidates: NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered 461 new planet candidates, NASA announced Jan. 7. Four are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their respective stars’ “habitable zone” in which liquid water can exist on the surface, the agency says. The observations, gathered from May 2009 to March 2011, “show a steady increase in the number of smaller-size planet candidates and the number of stars with more than one candidate,” NASA says.
A new “block buy” deal for the U.S. Air Force to buy the next two satellites designed by Lockheed Martin to provide nuclear-hardened communications for the president and military commanders is estimated to save the government almost $1.5 billion. But the cost of each Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite, used for routine secure communications globally as well as presidential command and control of nuclear forces, still exceeds the $1 billion mark.
HOUSTON — Robonaut 2, a NASA and General Motors collaboration to develop an astronaut-friendly humanoid, is due a pair of legs and a battery backpack later this year to give it more mobility inside and eventually outside the International Space Station. The two-armed, camera and force-sensor-laced torso launched to the station aboard a February 2011 space shuttle mission. It has been restrained to a stanchion in the station’s U.S. Destiny laboratory since it was awakened electronically for the first time late the following August.
HOUSTON — Astronauts assigned to multi-month or multi-year missions to near-Earth asteroids and Mars may face an accelerated onset of Alzheimer’s-like symptoms from cosmic radiation exposure, according to a NASA-funded study by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) that used mice as subjects.
Hurricane Sandy came and went in late 2012, as did many of the startup issues at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), elevating the prospects that Orbital Sciences Corp. will complete its NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems program milestones in the new year and begin lucrative cargo deliveries to the International Space Station.
SPACE LEGISLATION: Congress on Jan. 2 extended for one year an indemnification program allowing the government to share the cost with industry against injuries or property damage suffered by the public in a commercial space launch. The House sought a two-year extension, but the Senate shortened the timeline. The bill also provides a waiver through 2020 allowing U.S. astronauts to fly aboard Russian spacecraft to gain access to the International Space Station.
Nothing reveals the political nature of this year's debate over across-the-board budget cuts as much as the dramatic change of discourse in the weeks leading to the deadline for preventing them. After a year of hearings, press conferences and road shows clamoring for a stop to sequestration, lawmakers and the Obama administration are now met with the deadline. Late last week, they appeared to have rationalized missing it.
Unmanned vessels are about to take a leap in capability, on the surface and beneath. The desire for persistent sensing is driving the need to develop fully autonomous, long-duration vehicles that can covertly patrol coastal waters or overtly follow submerged submarines. The U.S. Office of Naval Research plans to build prototypes of the Large-Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) to address the autonomy, sensing and energy challenges of a vessel able to operate independently for months.
North Korea's successful launch of a satellite in December after 14 years of attempts put the hermit kingdom one step closer toward deploying an intercontinental ballistic missile. And Iran's nuclear weapons program—and the threat of an Israeli attack to cripple it—will keep tensions simmering in the Middle East.
When I began writing this column eight years ago, airlines were reeling as oil prices soared above $50 a barrel. Lockheed Martin was hoping to ramp up production of the Joint Strike Fighter in 2009, and Wall Street analysts were beginning to question whether a run-up in defense stocks had much steam left. Airbus was preparing to launch development of the A350 in response to Boeing's 7E7 (now 787), and the business jet market was embarking on a sales surge that would end in a spectacular crash.
The bifurcation of the business jet market is expected to continue in 2013, with strong demand for larger and pricier jets and sluggish sales of small and mid-sized aircraft. A Chinese company's failed bid in 2012 to acquire bankrupt Hawker Beechcraft is unlikely to slow Beijing's bid to become a significant player in the market.
