XIAN, China — Japan’s space program will employ a new idle-thrust engine mode as a standard method of safely deorbiting second stages in missions of the H-IIB launcher, following a successful first mission last year.

XIAN, China — China’s new medium-heavy space launcher, the Long March 7, should fly late next year, entering service in an initial version capable of lifting 13.5 metric tons (30,000 lb.) to low orbit, making it significantly larger than current Chinese rockets. The Long March 7 will have four boosters, says the principal engineer of manufacturer CALT, Shen Lin, adding that China is also planning new upper stages and launch vehicles, some using solid propellants and others fueled with methane.

NASA is missing opportunities to transfer key technologies from its substantial research and development investments to the commercial sector, academia and other government agencies, according to an inspector general’s audit of the agency’s Space Technology Program.

HOUSTON — Texas A&M University is leading a collaboration on a novel “soft-push” technique for diverting hazardous Near Earth Asteroids that is gathering maturity for a future orbital flight test. NASA’s Ames Research Center and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia are collaborating with Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering Professor David Hyland, as he and his students seek a flight test opportunity as a secondary payload.

ATHENA PAD: Lockheed Martin has picked Alaska’s Kodiak Launch Complex as its dedicated West Coast site for Athena rocket launches. The company has been working with the state of Alaska and Alaska Aerospace Corporation on expansion plans for the new medium–lift launch pad to support potential Athena III launches. The company says it is “positioned to expand the Athena II program as it continues to evaluate the business case for Athena III launches from Alaska.” Lockheed Martin and partner ATK announced the resurrection of the Athena line in 2010.

BALLOONING: Near Space Corp. (NSC) is to begin construction this spring on a $6.9 million, 31,000-sq.-ft. commercial high-altitude balloon launch facility at its home base of Tillamook, Ore. NSC is one of seven suborbital flight providers in NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program and the only one not using rockets. The company expects to launch 10 research missions this year to altitudes exceeding 130,000 ft. Depending on their size, NSC’s balloons can support payloads up to 1 ton. NSC’s Eric Byers says the balloons typically have a loiter time of 3 hr.

Planning for the European Space Agency’s 2019 Lunar Lander mission incorporates three-dimensional imaging lidar technology to steer the spacecraft’s descent through the hazards of the ridge and boulder-filled landscape at the Moon’s south pole. Jena-Optronik, of Germany, and NEPTEC, of Canada, are leading parallel development efforts in low-power, minimal-volume lidar hardware for the hazard detection and avoidance function.

Houston – NASA’s emerging plans to consolidate “arc jet” testing of spacecraft thermal protection systems at Ames Research Center at Moffet Field, Calif., by closing a 46-year-old facility at Johnson Space Center in Houston are drawing protests from Texas lawmakers, who believe a dual capability is essential to the nation’s efforts to develop future commercial as well as government piloted and robotic spacecraft.