DATA DUMP: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to distribute some of the minute samples its Hayabusa probe returned from the asteroid Itakowa. The spacecraft, which imaged its shadow against the type-S asteroid as it approached in the fall of 2005, returned more than 1,000 asteroid particles measuring about 10 micrometers (0.0004 in.), despite control problems at its target. The tiny samples have been analyzed by Japanese scientists, and now will be available in a peer-reviewed opportunity.

NASA does not have adequate plans to deal with the significant likelihood that the International Space Station (ISS) may have to be abandoned at some point during the remainder of this decade, nor is it addressing safety issues with its plan to use commercial vehicles to deliver crews to the orbiting outpost, the agency’s outside safety review organization has concluded. In its 2011 annual report, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) sees “more than an outside possibility” that the ISS will suffer a loss-of-mission event during its projected lifetime.

LONDON — China’s plan to launch 12 more Compass navigation satellites and inaugurate their operational use this year is only one of several key satellite activities planned for 2012.

Boeing says the big news in pulse manufacturing is not limited to production ramp-ups in its 737 factories in Washington. It also is making news in manufacturing satellites on an assembly line in El Segundo, Calif. Boeing Satellite Systems has four identical Global Positioning System IIF satellites pulsing through an assembly line with 13 distinct manufacturing “post” positions as part of a U.S. Air Force contract with a total value of $1.35 billion.

Boeing CEO James McNerney predicts that more of the company’s military sales will originate overseas, as the U.S. defense budget comes under pressure. McNerney told analysts Jan. 25 that with “tough U.S. defense budgets,” the company sees “significant upside in the international defense market” for Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS). He forecasts that as much as 25-30% of revenues for the unit could come from international sales “in the next few years.”

GENOA — Even as France’s Safran considers a bid for it, Avio says it is still planning at least a partial initial public offering this year, one it had postponed from the end of 2011 due to Europe’s financial crisis.

NASA will aim for a March 14 air-launch of its Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, spacecraft on a mission begun in 2003 to identify high-energy X-ray sources—including distant black holes—with unprecedented sensitivity.

The U.S. Air Force is embarking on an accelerated analysis of alternatives for a future defense weather satellite constellation after initiating the termination of Northrop Grumman’s Defense Weather Satellite System (DWSS) contract.