DATA DUMP: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to distribute some of the minute samples its Hayabusa probe returned from the asteroid Itakowa. The spacecraft, which imaged its shadow against the type-S asteroid as it approached in the fall of 2005, returned more than 1,000 asteroid particles measuring about 10 micrometers (0.0004 in.), despite control problems at its target. The tiny samples have been analyzed by Japanese scientists, and now will be available in a peer-reviewed opportunity.
NASA does not have adequate plans to deal with the significant likelihood that the International Space Station (ISS) may have to be abandoned at some point during the remainder of this decade, nor is it addressing safety issues with its plan to use commercial vehicles to deliver crews to the orbiting outpost, the agency’s outside safety review organization has concluded. In its 2011 annual report, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) sees “more than an outside possibility” that the ISS will suffer a loss-of-mission event during its projected lifetime.
LONDON — China’s plan to launch 12 more Compass navigation satellites and inaugurate their operational use this year is only one of several key satellite activities planned for 2012.
Boeing says the big news in pulse manufacturing is not limited to production ramp-ups in its 737 factories in Washington. It also is making news in manufacturing satellites on an assembly line in El Segundo, Calif. Boeing Satellite Systems has four identical Global Positioning System IIF satellites pulsing through an assembly line with 13 distinct manufacturing “post” positions as part of a U.S. Air Force contract with a total value of $1.35 billion.
Boeing CEO James McNerney predicts that more of the company’s military sales will originate overseas, as the U.S. defense budget comes under pressure. McNerney told analysts Jan. 25 that with “tough U.S. defense budgets,” the company sees “significant upside in the international defense market” for Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS). He forecasts that as much as 25-30% of revenues for the unit could come from international sales “in the next few years.”
GENOA — Even as France’s Safran considers a bid for it, Avio says it is still planning at least a partial initial public offering this year, one it had postponed from the end of 2011 due to Europe’s financial crisis.
NASA will aim for a March 14 air-launch of its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, spacecraft on a mission begun in 2003 to identify high-energy X-ray sources—including distant black holes—with unprecedented sensitivity.
The U.S. Air Force is embarking on an accelerated analysis of alternatives for a future defense weather satellite constellation after initiating the termination of Northrop Grumman’s Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS) contract.
A Jan. 24 DAILY story misidentified the EELV engine being offered at a discount to United Launch Alliance. It is the RS-68 engine, which powers the core stage of the Delta IV.
HOUSTON — The crew of the International Space Station joined with launch teams in Kazakhstan early this week for a series of preparations leading to the late Jan. 27 arrival of Russia’s first Progress resupply mission of 2012. The unpiloted space freighter, loaded with nearly three tons of dry goods, research gear, propellant, water and compressed air, is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Jan. 25 at 6:06 p.m. EST, or Jan. 26 at 5:06 a.m. at the desert launch site.
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, long a center for sounding rocket science campaigns, is becoming a site for small satellite launches as well, according to NASA’s new chief technologist. Mason Peck, a Cornell professor who assumed a two-year assignment managing NASA’s open-ended technology-development effort Jan. 3, toured the venerable launch site on Virginia’s eastern shore Jan. 24, and found it a promising spot for smallsat work.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — While U.S. launch officials slowly make headway in their efforts to curb rising launch costs, some are calling for a better compromise between mission assurance and affordability as the Air Force studies a possible rate increase to 10 national security space launches per year.
A solar flare that erupted Jan. 22 has prompted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue warnings of a geomagnetic storm that will wash over Earth on the morning of Jan. 24, potentially upsetting power grids, navigation and satellites. For spacecraft, geostationary satellites are most at risk because their orbits at 22,300 mi. above the equator put them beyond the protection of the planet’s radiation belts. Satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) generally operate within the radiation belts.
President Barack Obama’s budget release will be delayed a week until Feb. 13, an administration official confirms. “The date was determined based on the need to finalize decisions and technical details of the document,” the official said in an email, adding that in keeping with efforts to rein in the federal deficit, the administration will not distribute paper copies of the budget. The administration is supposed to submit its budget to Congress on the first Monday of February. The Obama administration has met that deadline just once — in 2010.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) has sent an unsolicited proposal to United Launch Alliance (ULA) that would cut the price of RL10 rocket engines by 25%, and by almost half from the levels reached in summer 2010.
COATS HONORED: Michael Coats, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, will receive the National Space Trophy, an award presented annually by the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation in recognition of career contributions to the exploration of space. The award will be presented in Houston on April 27. Coats joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 1978 as a Navy test pilot. He commanded and piloted three shuttle flights before leaving the space agency in 1991 to pursue a career as an aerospace executive. Coats rejoined NASA in 2005 as Johnson’s 10th director.
DYING COMET: Scientists at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., have used the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument on board NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory to observe the final death throes of a comet as it passed about 0.2 solar radii off the limb of the Sun. The comet was first discovered July 4, 2011, using the Large Angle and Spectrometric Chronograph aboard the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory and named C/2011 N3 (SOHO).
The demise of the Delta II rocket family and continuing uncertainty over the performance of newer small and medium-lift successors are forcing NASA to delay the allocation of launch vehicles to upcoming science missions.
PARIS — European Space Agency subsidies intended to offset high fixed costs incurred by the Arianespace commercial launch consortium could be unnecessary by decade’s end if ESA members agree to invest a little over €1 billion ($1.3 billion) to upgrade the Ariane 5 rocket, according to Astrium Chief Executive Francois Auque.
A new opportunity is on the horizon for companies hoping to sell unmanned aircraft to support the missile defense mission in the U.S. This is welcome news for companies seeking to break into this space or expand this type of work because late last year the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) selected incumbent Boeing to manage the massive Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system for another seven years.
William N. Ostrove/Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com
The launch industry is still recovering from a downturn that reduced the number of competitors in the market and forced the remaining players to restructure. These companies also have become more reliant on government spending. A recovery is being driven by the reduction of launch vehicle operators and an increase in launch opportunities, but an expected decline in satellite purchases and an increase in the number of launch vehicle operators could fuel greater competition.
Launch industry managers worldwide will go after government markets as the industry continues its recovery from a downturn that has brought a reduction in the number of competitors in the market and forced the remaining players to restructure. While the reduction of launch vehicle operators and an increase in launch opportunities is driving recovery for the survivors, an expected decline in satellite purchases and rise in the number of launch vehicle operators down the road could fuel greater competition in coming years.
William N. Ostrove/Forecast International/www.forecastinternational.com
Although space assets play a vital military role on the battlefield, militaries are being forced to balance increased demand for satellite capabilities with tightening budgets. The current drive of governments worldwide to rein in spending will have an effect on military satellite procurement during the next decade.
