NRO RETRY: The U.S. Air Force is eyeing Sept. 6 for the rescheduled launch of the National Reconnaissance Office’s latest classified satellite, NROL-36. Originally targeted for an Aug. 2 liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., the flight had to be postponed while engineers worked through a range instrumentation issue. The fixes for the range issues should be tested and certified by the end of this month, according to Atlas V rocket maker United Launch Alliance.

Three space-based experiments employing cubesats to demonstrate advanced communications and control techniques will share $22.6 million in NASA technology funding over the next three years. The agency’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program, funded through the Office of the Chief Technologist, picked proposals using the cubesat format based on 10 cubic cm. units, or Us, each weighing no more than 1.33 kg. All are scheduled to fly as secondary payloads in 2014-15.

LOGAN, Utah — The burgeoning demand for cubesat launches to orbit can easily be met by piggybacking on the commercial cargo spacecraft that soon will be visiting the International Space Station (ISS) regularly, according to an “Old Space” veteran who piggybacked with larger spacecraft three times.

NASA’s Inspector General (IG) has found significant lapses in the agency’s efforts to lease far-flung surplus real estate and facilities to private as well as other government entities as part of a wider cost-reduction strategy outlined in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. The agency must do more to identify and market leasable assets as well as improve documentation of its response and the training of personnel responsible for carrying out the effort, according to IG Paul Martin’s Aug. 9 audit report.

The three teams all have ambitions beyond the agency’s basic requirement

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Has started developing critical technologies for human spaceflight mission, government still hasn’t given final approval

MORPHEUS DOWN: NASA’s experimental Project Morpheus lander crashed and exploded during a free flight at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Fla., Aug. 9. The vehicle “lifted off the ground and then experienced a hardware component failure, which prevented it from maintaining stable flight,” NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said. “No one was injured and the resulting fire was extinguished by KSC fire personnel.