On July 23, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) celebrated the 40th birthday of Landsat, the Earth-observing satellite series most closely identified with building a continuing data stream about how population growth, climate change, natural events and man's activities are influencing the planet.
Aerojet and Rocketdyne trace their roots to the dawn of the space age, with both companies building the engines that powered multiple generations of ICBMs and manned space vehicles. But the long-term outlook for both suppliers became clouded in recent years with the sharp decline in the demand for government launch services and the advent of new, lower-cost rivals, such as Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
For Sally Ride, who died July 23, 2012, of pancreatic cancer, being the first U.S. woman in space was only the beginning of a long and productive career.
WASHINGTON - Small satellites, once the realm of one-off low-budget science missions and undergraduate engineering classes, have come full circle with the growing realization among hard-pressed, high-end users that the little birds can do the big jobs, too. (Cubesat image: Raytheon)
After dueling foreign policy speeches before the Veterans of Foreign Wars last week, the U.S. presidential candidates unleashed their surrogates on Washington, where a discussion at the Brookings Institution underscored both candidates' inability to answer questions on defense spending.
After years of little presidential attention during the last administration, aerospace and defense industry executives are now more in the loop with top Pentagon officials—but they don't feel any better. In the latest in a series of get-togethers, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and several CEOs and trade organization leaders sat down last week to discuss the so-called sequestration budget cuts that are set to take effect in January. But from reports of the meeting, neither side walked away with answers or reasons to feel less anxious.
Politics—not policy or technology—is proving to be the biggest obstacle to developing alternative-fuel programs for the military that could prove to be successful commercial energy alternatives, says Phyllis Cuttino, director of the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate. The Pentagon is employing and deploying ships and aircraft using sound technology for alternative energy, particularly biofuels, Cuttino says.
NASA is pressing to use everything from robots to Russians in an effort to stretch the crew time available on the U.S. side of the International Space Station for research. William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for human exploration and operations, says he is “narrowing down” the list of candidates he will select as early as this week for the agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability effort, which will provide substantial seed money for at least three private efforts to deliver crews to the ISS as early as 2015.
Robert J. Stevens, Lockheed Martin's CEO, went to Capitol Hill on July 18 to deliver a warning: If Congress does nothing to halt another $500 billion in automatic cuts to U.S. defense spending due to begin next January under a process known as “sequestration,” the Pentagon's largest contractor will be forced to hand out 10,000 pink slips, riffing 8% of its workforce.
Even as the congressional clock ticks away, a bill to prevent U.S. airlines from paying the EU for carbon emissions may yet receive attention. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is expected to mark up the bill aimed at blocking the EU's emissions trading system (ETS) on July 31. “If we could get a good, strong vote out of the committee, it would increase the likelihood we could get it voted on the floor,” says bill co-sponsor Sen.
International Space Station Expedition 32 crewmembers should be unloading supplies and equipment this week from the third of Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicles (HTV-3) following its launch July 20 from the Tanegashima Space Center in southeast Japan. Carrying 4.6 tons of cargo, the Kounotori supply ship was scheduled to rendezvous with the orbiting science lab on July 27.
BIG DEAL: The U.S. Justice Department and the European Commission gave final approvals to United Technologies Corp.’s (UTC) acquisition of Goodrich, clearing the way for UTC to close on its $18.4 billion mega-merger July 26. Hartford, Conn.-based UTC expects to see $8 billion in synergies from the deal this year, according to CEO Louis Chenevert.
HOUSTON — NASA’s 11-year-old Mars Odyssey spacecraft has been repositioned along its polar orbit around the red planet to provide a near-real-time communication link with Earth during the Mars Science Laboratory’s Aug. 6 entry and landing. News of the $2.5 billion rover mission’s fate should reach NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., through Odyssey on Aug. 6 at 1:31 a.m. EDT, nearly 14 min. after the actual landing — the time it will take X-band transmissions to cover the 154 million mi. separating the two planets.
PARIS — Harris CapRock Communications on July 23 said it would book more than 1 gigabit per second (gbps) of broadband capacity on Intelsat’s new generation of high-throughput EpicNG satellites, which are scheduled for launch in 2015. The capacity will be used for advanced fixed and mobile satellite services in the energy, maritime and government markets.
HELPING HAND: The Export-Import Bank of the United States has approved two transactions totaling more than $1.2 billion to finance the export of U.S.-made telecommunications satellites to Mexico and Australia. A $922 million loan guarantee will support the export of three satellites and related equipment to the Mexican government for the Mexsat regional mobile satellite system. The bank also is providing a $281 million direct loan to Jabiru Satellite Ltd. in Southbank, Australia, for the purchase of satellite and ground equipment from Lockheed Martin.
PARIS — Commercial remote-sensing satellite imagery providers DigitalGlobe and GeoEye announced they would merge in a cash-and-stock deal worth $453 million that would leave Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe operating the world’s largest fleet of commercial imagery satellites. Under the agreement’s terms, DigitalGlobe is offering 34% more than the July 20 closing price of $15.17 per share for GeoEye stock, the companies said in a July 23 conference call with investors.
