EXTENSION: NASA has awarded a contract extension and a pair of options worth a potential $46.6 million to Computer Sciences Corp. of Fort Worth for flight line service, maintenance and modifications of agency aircraft based at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Effective March 1, the accord extends a $162.1 million base contract between NASA and Computer Sciences that became effective Sept. 1, 2009.

Palo Alto, Calif. – Virgin Galactic will be able to offer the potential of a “seamless” transition for scientists doing long-term microgravity experiments on the International Space Station and short-term suborbital flights aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo under an agreement with NanoRacks.

Singapore – Anatoly Perminov, the former director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has downplayed the prospect that Russia will have manned space missions to the Moon. In recent weeks, Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin disclosed that Russian astronauts may land on the Moon in 2020. Perminov, who stepped down last year as director general of Roscosmos and is now deputy director general of the agency’s joint-stock company, Russian Space Systems, was dismissive when asked about the reports.

The spacecraft-conjunction advisories put out by the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) are inaccurate and less useful to prevent interference and collisions than the orbit data that satellite operators have started sharing among themselves, according to a top Intelsat executive who has helped set up the operator collaboration.

New decisions and studies already involve the Global Hawk, special missions aircraft, U-2s,

PARIS – Following a rough year in 2010, France remained the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter last year, behind the U.S., U.K. and Russia, reporting a 25% boost – from €5.1 billion to €6.5 billion – at the end of 2011. The French armaments agency DGA estimates the world’s top four arms exporters account for 90% of the global military export market, although anemic U.S. and European budgets are helping to stimulate the market entry of new players, including China and South Korea.