On Jan. 17, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. would not sign the EU's Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. Instead, the U.S. would invite other spacefaring states, including members of the EU, to negotiate an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities using the EU document as a launching point. The administration's new direction should not come as a surprise, but will prove counterproductive in achieving its own goals.
Growing interest in small satellites and the problem of how to launch them affordably could provide hypersonic system developers with a long-awaited first step on the way to reusable, routine access to space.
It has been almost 50 years since Mariner 2 became the first space probe from Earth to return scientific data from another planet. The swarms of ever-more-sophisticated robotic spacecraft that followed have changed our view of the planets around our Sun in ways that seem incredible today. On Aug. 27, 1962, when Mariner 2 lifted off for Venus, many scientists believed Earth's sunward neighbor was a steamy jungle planet beneath its clouds. Data from the two-channel microwave radiometer on Mariner 2 quickly disabused everyone of that notion. Passing within 22,000 mi.
SpaceX will get an early opportunity to show what it can do to help scientists and engineers use the International Space Station by flying a powerful thruster testbed up in the unpressurized section of its Dragon cargo capsule.
The International Space Station has a crew of six again, following launch and docking of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M capsule with two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut on board. The May 17 linkup restored the station to six-person operations for the first time since April 27, when a crew of three U.S. and Russian fliers descended to Earth after 5.5 months in orbit. Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA's Joseph Acaba (seen in this photo taken in the Russian space agency control room) lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 15.
Spacecraft controllers are checking out Telesat’s Nimiq 6 direct-to-home broadcast satellite after a 9-r., 14-min. launch mission on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket that lifted off May 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 4.5-metric-ton satellite reached its geostationary transfer orbit en route to its operational orbital slot at 91.1 deg. W. Long. From there its 32 Ku-band transponders will deliver direct-to-home television services to customers in North America for its Canadian operator.
NASA has cleared Innovative Space Propulsion Systems (ISPS), a Houston-based partnership developing green rocket engines, to fly a thruster testbed on the International Space Station (ISS)
KOUROU, French Guiana — The future of communication satellites appears to be moving toward larger, more powerful models, but satellite manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin will have the challenge of keeping within the capability of current launchers.
A Japanese H-IIA rocket orbited two remote-sensing satellites May 17, one of them a South Korean spacecraft that marked Japan’s first international commercial customer. Liftoff from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launch site on Tanegashima Island in Southeast Japan came on time at 12:39 p.m. EDT, and the spacecraft separated as planned.
KOUROU, French Guiana — Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. of Japan, which says it is Asia’s largest satellite operator, plans to sign contracts this year to buy more satellites. Osamu Inoue, president of the company’s satellite and space business group, says Lockheed Martin and Sky Perfect are discussing a purchase.
Congressional language directing NASA to pick a single commercial crew vehicle to back during development threatens to boost the cost of commercial crew operations if it is adopted, according to a member of the presidential panel that recommended using commercial vehicles to transport U.S. astronauts to low Earth orbit.
Satellite operators in Vietnam and Japan will take on-orbit deliveries in June and July, respectively, of Lockheed Martin communications satellites launched in tandem on an Ariane V ECA Tuesday evening. Vinasat-2 and JCSAT-13, both based on Lockheed Martin’s A2100 satellite bus, lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, on time at 6:13 p.m. EDT May 15, and returned their first signals from geostationary transfer orbits by 7:20 p.m. EDT, according to the satellite manufacturer.
A May 16 story incorrectly identified the communication unit that was replaced aboard the International Space Station in anticipation of the upcoming arrival of the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The unit is the Space Integrated GPS Inertial Navigation System, or SIGI, which is a piece of NASA hardware.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) is considering a plan to launch its next large-class science mission atop a Russian Proton rocket rather than an Ariane 5 to reap savings that would help the agency pay for its troubled ExoMars campaign.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has confirmed that one of the largest objects in the Main Asteroid Belt is actually a tiny planet-like body that formed around a molten interior.
ITT Exelis says it is making rapid progress in deploying the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) network in the U.S., with more than 60% of the required ground stations now completed. The manufacturer tells Aviation Week that it has constructed 428 ADS-B radio stations. The current plan is for 700 stations: 647 in the continental U.S., 41 in Alaska, nine in Hawaii, and one each in Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
HOUSTON — International Space Station astronauts Don Pettit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency have replaced a UHF communications unit aboard the station that will be required for the upcoming berthing of the unpiloted SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule. The Dragon is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 at 4:55 a.m. EDT, initiating the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the orbiting science lab.
NEW FALCON: NASA has modified its NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract with SpaceX to add an additional configuration of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket to its fleet. The SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 “will be available to the agency’s Launch Services Program to use for future missions in accordancea with the on-ramp provision of NLS II,” NASA says in an announcement.
SINGAPORE — Belgium will be able to take advantage of some of Luxembourg’s allocation in the U.S. military’s Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation.
NEW DELHI — India’s efforts to develop heavier rockets received a boost with a recent test of its indigenously built, super-cooled cryogenic engine, which will be used to place a communications satellite into geosynchronous orbit later this year. The cryogenic engine is slated to fly on the country’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) as early as September, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief K. Radhakrishnan says. India started developing cryogenic rocket engine technology in 1993.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has helped to block airline consolidation in the past, and now he has set his sights on the proposed union of US Airways and American Airlines. Schumer, a leading Democrat in the Senate, met last week with US Airways CEO Douglas Parker. Shortly after, Schumer followed up with a letter to the airline executive expressing his concerns about the merger's potential to disrupt airline service in upstate N.Y. Schumer is also asking whether a merger would derail American's plan to expand its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
When Republicans talk about reducing the deficit, they don't mean reducing defense spending. House lawmakers last week passed a bill that would prevent massive budget reductions from taking place at the Pentagon next year by instead cutting funding for food stamps and other social programs. “This plan ensures that we maintain our fiscal discipline and commitment to reducing out-of-control government spending, while making sure our top priority is national security,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said after the bill passed.
