ANOTHER TRY: The U.S. Air Force is planning to use the RL10B-2 engine for a late February flight of the fifth Wideband Global Satcom satellite on a Delta IV rocket, according to Dave Madden, who directs the Air Force’s military satellite communications system program office. The Delta IV, which uses the RL10B-2 to power the upper stage, malfunctioned during an Oct. 8 GPS IIF launch and has not flown since. Air Force officials have yet to find a root cause for the low-thrust anomaly.

It must be compatible with existing launch vehicles and use industry-standard payload adapters and electrical connectors.

Doubts still hang over the military utility of small satellites, holding back progress on low-cost, quick-reaction systems that could be launched at short notice to fill gaps in space coverage. To prove their viability, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has begun a program to demonstrate that small satellites produced and launched on demand can provide imagery on request directly to individual soldiers.

HOUSTON — A Russian Soyuz rocket reached orbit early Dec. 19 with a three-man multinational crew that includes veteran astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is scheduled to become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station in mid-March. The Soyuz TMA-07M capsule carrying cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Hadfield was on course to dock with the 256-mi.-high station’s Rassvet module on Dec. 21 at 9:12 a.m., EST.

NASA’s fuel-depleted Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) A and B lunar mission probes slammed into a mountain near Goldschmidt crater at the Moon’s North Pole late Dec. 17, ending a one-year mission. The carefully targeted impact of the two washing machine-sized spacecraft, renamed Ebb and Flow, occurred on schedule, with Ebb striking first at 5:28 p.m. EST, and Flow striking 32 sec. later. The spacecraft impacted the Moon at 3,800 mph.

The Senate is slated to vote on the bill Dec. 20 or 21, and it is expected to pass by the end of the week.

NEW DELHI — The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) plans to undertake 10 space missions in 2013, including its first Mars orbiter. “Of these, eight missions will be launched by September 2013 and the remaining by year-end,” says V. Narayanasamy, a junior minister in the prime minister’s office, which is in charge of space administration.

After a long delay, board members for the non-profit organization set up to organize and promote use of the U.S. National Laboratory on the International Space Station were finally appointed. In order to make up for lost time, they are scheduling weekly meetings by telephone.