Under pressure from Gulf Coast state politicians, U.S. Air Force leadership confirmed they are reconsidering their plan to move C-130s to Montana from Texas. And the Air Force plans to wrap up its acquisition strategy for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program this spring, in a way that allows for increased competition. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz offered these updates to the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee during a March 14 hearing.
Some astronauts who have spent extended periods in microgravity on the International Space Station (ISS) have developed abnormalities in their eyes and pituitary gland/brain connectors that are similar to a type of intracranial hypertension that occurs on the ground. The finding may help earthbound physicians understand what causes the potentially serious condition, but it already has NASA flight surgeons pondering how they can mitigate it when astronauts travel into deep space.
BARCELONA, Spain — Astrium is trying to drum up European interest in its geostationary Earth-observation (EO) satellite concept, including a recent briefing to the European Defense Agency (EDA) to garner funding support.
Boeing has filled out its 702 satellite group with the launch of the “small platform” family on a joint order for four spacecraft from Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) and Satellites Mexicanos (Satmex). The first two spacecraft, ABS-3A and Satmex 7, are scheduled to be delivered together for tandem launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 in the fourth quarter of 2014 or first quarter of 2015. Launch plans and details on the second spacecraft for each buyer have not been announced.
NEW GIG: Michael Lopez-Alegria, retired NASA astronaut and lead for the International Space Station’s multilateral crew operations panel, is becoming president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, effective March 19. Lopez-Algria, a former naval aviator who holds the current record for U.S. spaceflight of 215 days, will serve as the federation’s chief Washington liaison. The seven-year-old organization represents more than 50 commercial spacecraft developers, suppliers and support service providers.
The panel of outside scientists that advises NASA on its spending priorities wants the agency to restore aid for robotic planetary exploration in its fiscal 2014 budget request, and urges agency managers to keep the same scientific priorities for Mars regardless of funding levels.
Piggyback government payloads on commercial spacecraft probably won’t win more than 1% of worldwide satellite-market revenue in the next few years, as bureaucratic inertia and a “not-invented-here” mentality work against the cost savings that might be gained, according to a new study.
HOUSTON — U.S. and Canadian ground control teams initiated a robotic refueling demonstration outside the International Space Station this week to underpin future commercial initiatives aimed at extending the operating life of aging satellites. The two-year, $22.6 million multiphase Robotic Refueling Mission (RMM) demonstration also may advance efforts to develop space-based refueling depots for future deep-space human exploration, according to Julie Robinson, NASA’s ISS program scientist.
Registration has opened for an online competition to develop software designed to enable a servicing satellite to capture a tumbling spacecraft. Targeted at high schools and colleges, the Autonomous Space Capture Challenge could benefit a U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) program to harvest and reuse components from defunct satellites in geosynchronous orbit.
GAG ORDER: NASA’s leadership challenges the logic of asking experts for their honest opinions when science chief John Grunsfeld reminds scientists on the NASA Advisory Council that they are “temporary” government employees when in formal session, and as such required to support — at least in theory — the fiscal 2013 NASA budget proposed by President Barack Obama. The budget would gut the joint Mars exploration program with the European Space Agency. Grunsfeld apparently is not keen on having his independent advisory body become too critical of the administration’s plans.
TURKISH HELO: Turkey is launching a competition for medium helicopters for use by the country’s national police force. The move comes after last year’s contest for 15 light utility helicopters for the police. The new bidding is for seven rotorcraft, associated mission equipment and spares. Bidders have until March 21 to formally receive the request for proposals from the Turkish defense armaments agency, SSM, with bids due on April 24.
WINNING LOSS: When the Indian government named the Dassault Rafale as the low-cost bidder in the country’s Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft competition, beating out the Eurofighter Typhoon, it was seen as a setback for EADS, whose Cassidian unit led the Typhoon campaign. But how much of a loss did EADS really suffer in the MMRCA program? Perhaps less than many suspect. EADS holds a 46% share in the Eurofighter consortium, but also controls 46.3% of Dassault Aviation shares.
TAXING ISSUE: The U.S. aerospace and defense industry might have succeeded last year in helping to persuade Washington to reverse a looming tax withholding requirement on federal contractors, but two senators are not letting the original issue go away silently. Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), senior members of their chamber’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are publicly pressing the Pentagon to explain what it is doing to help the government gain $4.5 million in unpaid taxes from one U.S.
Boeing's Wideband Global Satcom began merely as a gapfiller project to provide communications for the U.S. military, but 11 years later the WGS satellites have become the backbone for shuttling the Pentagon's wideband data. And at a time when the Pentagon is planning to cut $487 billion over 10 years, WGS is being hailed as an example of an efficient satellite procurement.
China's new medium space launcher, the Long March 7, should fly late next year, entering service in an initial version capable of lifting 13.5 metric tons (30,000 lb.) to low Earth orbit, making it significantly larger than current Chinese rockets. The launcher will have four boosters, says Shen Lin, the principal engineer at manufacturer CALT, adding that China is also planning new upper stages.
Planetary scientists in the U.S. and Europe are smarting from a $226.2 million cut in NASA's requested funding for robotic Mars exploration. That drives the final nail in the coffin of a joint Mars effort with the European Space Agency and obscures the future of Mars exploration in general.
The promise that high-bandwidth satellites can bring fast, cheap Internet to the masses will be put to the test in 2012 as a new generation of Ka-band spacecraft enters service in the U.S. and Europe, with plans to expand into Russia, Australia and Latin America.
U.S. space-policy leaders remain divided over NASA's direction as President Barack Obama's first term winds down, with another slugfest between the White House and Congress over the agency's fiscal 2013 budget request likely this year.
Satellite operators see hopeful signs that their spacecraft eventually will play host to payloads supplied by cash-strapped governments trying to save a buck in today's tight budget environment, but so far concrete new deals have yet to materialize. In July 2011 Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, head of the USAF Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), set up a dedicated hosted-payload office (HPO) to look for military space missions that could take advantage of piggyback rides on other spacecraft, and to help develop and integrate the resulting payloads.
A sigh of relief swept the room last month at the European Space Agency's headquarters in Paris as top ESA and industry officials watched the signing of the 19-nation organization's largest and possibly most politically charged satellite contract.
Eutelsat Communications and Es'hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company, have selected Arianespace to launch their EUTELSAT 25B / Es'hail 1 satellite in the second quarter of 2013 on board an Ariane 5 launcher.
The House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees NASA funding has rejected the agency’s request to begin shutting down its cooperative Mars-exploration effort with the European Space Agency, until the issue can be debated thoroughly. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the subcommittee chairman, rejected a fiscal 2012 reprogramming request that would have shifted funds immediately to accommodate the Mars-program downsizing set up in the fiscal 2013 budget request.
