Stratolaunch, the launch-services startup bankrolled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, has opened discussions with Orbital Sciences Corp. about modifying one of its rockets for air-launch from the giant airplane it is building with parts from two surplus Boeing 747s. The company turned to Orbital after SpaceX concluded that making the necessary modifications to its Falcon launcher — the original choice for the concept — would not make business sense.
NASA needs a revamp of its strategic plan that follows from a new national consensus on what the agency’s primary mission should be, and what resources it needs to achieve it, according to new reports from the Space Foundation and the National Research Council (NRC).
SHIFTING SEATS: Sen. Jim DeMint (S.C.), who was preparing to lead Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, now plans to leave the Senate in January. That leaves the committee in need of a ranking member. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), is next in line. “There is a process for these assignments that will play out, and I look forward to discussing this development with my colleagues on the Commerce Committee,” Thune says in a statement. Thune leads the aviation subcommittee. DeMint was in line to replace Sen.
Powerful solar storms are an imperfectly understood threat to the world’s power grids, but one with the potential for economic damage so catastrophic that the estimated $100-$200 million it would cost annually to deploy an operational space-weather warning system could be trivial by comparison.
HOUSTON — Though committed to launching a U.S. astronaut to the International Space Station for a 12-month flight, the longest space voyage yet by an American, NASA is far from prepared to commit to a succession of 12-month voyages to the orbiting science lab, according to the agency’s ISS program manager and others who expect to gather new insight into the health effects.
NASA’s top science mission planner, Associate Administrator John Grunsfeld, says NASA has the spare parts, plans and knowledge to create another Mars rover for launch in 2020. The mission, with a cost estimated by the Aerospace Corp. of $2.5 billion, needs congressional approval in what Grunsfeld acknowledges are “very tough fiscal times.” But he told members of the American Geophysical Union here Dec. 4 that the proposed mission “really reflects a strong commitment by NASA and the White House to Mars exploration.”
NEW DELHI — India has plans to launch a Geostationary Imaging Satellite (Gisat) for real-time observation over the Indian subcontinent and to shore up surveillance over its sensitive borders, a senior government official says. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is in the process of designing the Gisat, which will be placed in geostationary orbit at 36,000 km (22,369 mi.) altitude, the official tells Aviation Week. He did not specify a time frame for the launch.
BUYOUT APPROVED: Shareholders of commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye approved a proposed buyout Dec. 3 that will leave the company’s chief U.S. competitor, DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo., operating the world’s largest fleet of high-resolution Earth imaging satellites. Under the terms of the merger, GeoEye shareholders can opt to take 1.137 shares of common stock and $4.10 per share in cash, a 100% cash payment totaling $20.27 per share, or 100% in stock, with each GeoEye share worth 1.425 shares of DigitalGlobe stock.
Government and industry officials from Europe and the U.S. opened discussions Nov. 30 on how to bring elements of the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into the service module for NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew vehicle.
Engineers do not expect three small cracks that appeared in the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle pressure vessel to delay the planned first flight of NASA's next human spacecraft in 2014. The cracks in three adjacent radial ribs machined into the aft bulkhead did not go all the way through, and the vessel continued to hold pressure after the cracks appeared when pressure reached 21.6 psi, according to a NASA spokeswoman. Orion's normal operating pressure is 14.7 psi.
Fiscal 2014—not 2013—will be the worst year for federal contractors, including defense companies, if the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration take effect in January 2013, says Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council. That is because sequestration will not cause a sharp drop-off in contracting opportunities until then. Federal contract spending will return to growth thereafter, but under lower top-line budgets outlined by the 2011 law known as the Budget Control Act.
Limiting congressional terms brings in fresh blood, but that also means a change in direction. House Republicans are capping leadership terms at six years, which means that Rep. John Mica (Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will hand over his gavel next year. Mica may have rubbed colleagues the wrong way with his continued war against the Transportation Security Administration. But he was a strong advocate for the FAA's NextGen air traffic modernization system who came up through the aviation subcommittee.
MIRROR, MIRROR: NASA plans to hold a workshop in February on possible uses for two 2.4-meter telescope mirrors transferred to the civil space agency in June by the National Reconnaissance Office. Although the optics have been proposed for a wide field infrared survey of the sky, other possibilities include uses for focused space-technology research, human exploration and operations, heliophysics, astrophysics and planetary science. The agency will select concepts for using the mirrors that it believes advance its goals, and allow detailed presentations of them at the Feb.
A small engineering firm on Florida’s Space Coast hopes to recover some of the revenue and jobs the region lost with retirement of the space shuttle fleet by offering maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to the commercial spaceflight industry that the Obama administration hopes will take the shuttle’s place.
