As U.S. loosens satellite export rules, suppliers own up to violations

Satellite industry's export woes may not be solved by reforms

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the defense sector has been at a standstill in 2013 in the over-$100 million category. There have been several noteworthy commercial acquisitions announced by companies with defense operations: Rockwell Collins said last month it is buying Arinc from Carlyle, and Alliant Techsystems is purchasing Caliber Co. from Norwest Equity Partners and Bushnell from MidOcean Partners. But heading into September, the number of defense deals with prices in excess of $100 million is easy to add up: zero.

A three-man U.S.-Russian crew is back on Earth after a successful 5.5-month expedition to the International Space Station. Weary but in good shape, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 ISS commander Pavel Vinogradov and fellow cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin were assisted from their capsule by helicopter-borne Russian recovery teams within minutes of touching down under parachute at 10:58 p.m. EDT Sept. 10 (8:58 a.m. Sept. 11 local time).

Scientists will spend 100 days studying the Moon's tenuous atmosphere after this spectacular launch from Wallops Island, Va., on a solid-fuel Minotaur V rocket—photographed from the top of New York's Rockefeller Center, 200 mi. away. Built by NASA's Ames Research Center, the 884-lb. Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) gave its handlers a few tense hours right after its Sept. 6 liftoff when fault-protection limits shut down its reaction wheels. Controllers disabled them to restart the wheels, and later fixed a star-tracker misalignment.

ITAR slowed but did not stop BRIC space developments

New technology can be surprisingly inexpensive. In the U.S., the Pentagon and the intelligence community spend billions of taxpayer dollars pushing the envelope on creative new hardware and software concepts that may never emerge from behind the black curtain of secrecy. That is probably a good thing for bombs and bullets, but it keeps a lot of potential dual-use technology out of the economy. Fortunately, there are means for innovation at the other end of the funding scale that can drive economic growth with actual, and significant, return on investment.

A classified U.S. National Reconnaissance Office KH-11 “Keyhole” satellite was successfully launched into low Earth orbit from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., on Aug. 28 by a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy.