Space

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.

Boeing reports the fourth Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) military communications satellite is “healthy and ready to begin orbital maneuvers and operational testing” following its Jan. 19 launch from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. The 7,600-lb. spacecraft, based on a Boeing 702 platform, was lifted into orbit on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV in a Medium-plus configuration. It was ULA’s first launch of the year and the Delta IV’s 18th. Contact with it was made 58 min. after liftoff.

HOUSTON — NASA’s Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV), now in its third generation, is emerging from a five-year Johnson Space Center-led research and technology effort as a versatile component of still-forming U.S. human space exploration plans.

Controllers have restarted on-orbit checkout of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) satellite, which was suspended last year after the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) sensor begin losing sensitivity in four of its channels. The problem appeared shortly after NPP returned this first full-Earth VIIRS image on Nov. 24. The spacecraft originally was scheduled to become fully operational in December, but its commissioning was put on hold while the VIIRS problem was analyzed.

LightSquared and the GPS industry continue their war of words over potential interference between the planned broadband wireless network and the position and timing signals from the U.S. government-owned navigation-satellite constellation.

Combat Aircraft: Growing demand for stealth technology gives Lockheed Martin's F-35 a dominant position in the global fighter market, even if the U.S. cuts the number it buys. And where the F-35 leads, new trainers will follow. See pp. 49 and 54. Commercial Transports: They face new challengers this time around, but Airbus and Boeing rake in orders in a high-stakes struggle for the narrowbody market. Their airline customers warn of higher costs and lower profits in 2012. See pp. 76, 80, 86 and 88.

Satellites play a vital role in the increasingly networked world, and satellite operators are discovering a wealth of new opportunities.

Significant defense orders, strong government subsidies and growing demand for domestically produced commercial aircraft have provided optimism regarding the Russian aircraft industry.

Michael J. McCord, the U.S. Defense Department's comptroller, warns of dire consequences if more than $1 trillion in approved cuts to military spending over 10 years are allowed to take effect. The result would be the lowest number of ships since World War I, the smallest ground force since 1940 and the smallest Air Force ever, he recently told investors.

Few times in aerospace history can have been as difficult for forecasters as recent months. Things are changing, that is certain, but there are so many conflicting signs that the direction of the industry is almost impossible to project. Debt crises, oil prices, climate change, competition for resources and many other factors inject unprecedented unpredictability into the equation.

As market demand for high-definition video and broadband Internet service grows, so too does the need for technologies to form the backbone of global networks.

The majority of the 161 unclassified milsats forecast for production in the next decade will go into service in the near term with production tapering in the outyears.

The U.S. Air Force's tanker contract has been awarded, Airbus and Boeing have moved to upgrade the A320 and 737, and NASA's space shuttle has flown its last mission. It's time to move on to 2012 and the next round of big developments in the aerospace and defense industry. Here are 12 to keep an eye on.

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.

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.

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.