NASA will spend $2.7 million on eight peer-reviewed research projects designed to advance the interagency National Robotics Initiative, set up by the Obama administration to promote U.S. robotics capabilities for the global marketplace. The projects will receive from $150,000 to $1 million for their work, which NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist is sponsoring as a way to push applications for “co-robotics” that can work with future human explorers on deep-space missions.
Veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield is training to become the first representative of the Canadian Space Agency to command the ISS, with a two-month stint at the helm of the six-person orbiting science laboratory set to begin in March 2013. Hadfield, 53, has trained for two years with cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, 41, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, 52, for a Dec. 5 liftoff aboard the 33 Soyuz mission to the station for a six-month tour of orbital duty.
NASA's space shuttle Endeavour landed atop its Boeing 747 carrier aircraft at Edwards AFB, Calif., just before 1 p.m. local time, marking the penultimate stop of its final journey into retirement. The shuttle, which was the last to be built, completed 25 missions and spent 299 days in orbit.
The French Polynesian island of Bora-Bora gleams in 1.5-meter (5-ft.) resolution in this image collected by the new SPOT 6 Earth-observation satellite three days after its Sept. 9 launch from the Satish Dhawan space center on Sriharikota Island on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21). Built by Astrium Services, the 800-kg (1,765-lb.) spacecraft images a 60-km (37-mi.) swath and can be complemented by 50-cm (20-in.) data from the very-high-resolution Pleiades 1A satellite, Astrium says.
Researchers from industry, academia and government agencies now have access to the Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) testbed on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA's Glenn Research Center hopes to begin demonstrations as early as late next year of new waveforms and software designed to enhance data delivery from scientific spacecraft. Announcements of opportunity to use SCAN are on the street, with industry and government researchers invited to enter Space Act agreements, and academic researchers to propose cooperative agreements.
A business aviation-related article in the Sept. 17 issue (page 62) incorrectly identified which Bombardier Global model will offer a 7,300-nm range at Mach 0.85 cruise when it becomes available in 2016. It is the Global 7000.
JSC SUPPORT: S&K Global Solutions LLC, of Polson, Mont., has been selected by NASA’s Johnson Space Center to consolidate computer product support for the facility’s Engineering Directorate under a potential $50 million, five-year agreement. Effective Oct. 18, the contract includes a three-year, cost-plus, fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price agreement and a single two-year option. S&K Global Solutions’ team includes Booz Allen Hamilton, of McLean, Va., and S&K Aerospace LLC, of St. Ignatius, Mont.
LOS ANGELES — Boeing is revising the CST-100 air bag landing system for use in water landings, after tests and further analysis revealed the space capsule would encounter greater loads than expected on splashdown.
Inmarsat expects that costs for satellite-based flight deck safety services, which airlines typically use for ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system) messaging in oceanic regions, will be 30% lower than its traditional services when the SwiftBroadband Safety Services option is approved for use in 2014.
The union representing Boeing engineers has lodged a preemptive strike in its negotiations over a four-year contract, recommending that its 23,000 members reject the company’s contract offer before it is formally presented.
NEW DELHI — The launch of India’s GSAT-10 communications satellite has been delayed by a week due to a minor error in the European Ariane 5 rocket meant to place it on orbit, the country’s top scientist says. “While reviewing the launch preparation, Arianespace found a hole in one of the hoses connecting the spaceport and launch vehicle. It is suspected one gram of dust particles might have entered the launch vehicle through the small hole,” says K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
METOP-B: Europe’s Metop-B satellite was launched into orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:28 p.m. local time Sept. 17. Roughly 1 hr. and 9 min. after liftoff, the upper stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle released the Astrium-built satellite into its designated orbit at approximately 800 km (500 mi.) altitude. Metop-B is a replacement low-altitude, polar-orbiting weather satellite for Metop-A. The spacecraft is designed to have an operational life of five years.
An article on Neil Armstrong in the Sept. 3/10 issue (page 32) misstated the date of the Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire and referred to alarms on the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, with the command module's name, Columbia. Also, details of Gemini 8's early return to Earth were omitted. After the pilots disengaged the primary maneuvering system and used the reentry system to regain control of the spacecraft, flight rules dictated that they deorbit.
It wasn't easy to kill Lockheed Martin's F-22, but resurrecting the Raptor could be just as difficult. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the issue in play during a Sept. 8 interview with a Virginia television station near the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, saying if he were elected president, he would add more of the fifth-generation fighters. But it's not clear whether the pledge aimed squarely at the local audience would fly even if Romney wins in November.
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver raised some eyebrows last week with a provocative sound bite: “We're going back to the Moon.” A prime mover in the Obama administration decision to kill the “Moon, Mars and Beyond” Constellation program, Garver explained that she was talking about cislunar space, with a mission as early as 2017. That would be the planned first flight of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle atop the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
A prototype vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) suborbital launch vehicle under development by Masten Space Systems crashed Sept. 11 during a flight test at Mojave, Calif. Masten Business Development Director Colin Ake says the Xaero rocket was preparing to make a vertical landing and was around two-thirds of the way through its mission when the accident took place.
Can industry really police itself? That's the question the Transportation Department's Inspector General will pose the second time starting Sept. 19, in an audit of the FAA's voluntary disclosure reporting program. The IG's review of the program comes as lawmakers continue to be concerned about the findings of a 2008 Inspector General's audit that found an FAA inspector and Southwest Airlines ducked the system.
Last week, a fresh set of calls urged Congress to address the nation's financial situation. Executives from Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and EADS North America are proceeding with pre-election plans to warn thousands of workers that they might be laid off early next year. Two former Treasury secretaries, one Republican and one Democrat, said failing to address America's debt problem has dire economic and foreign policy implications. And Moody's rating agency now says the nation's long-held AAA rating hinges on congressional budget negotiations. Sen.
