The U.S. Air Force has ruled that the first Falcon 9 v1.1 flight conducted last fall does count as one of three required for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to be certified to compete for boosting U.S national security payloads into orbit, as the upstart company works to take on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly.
HOUSTON — NASA will hold off on scheduled spacewalks outside the International Space Station until late July or early August in response to the findings and recommendations of a Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) that probed the spacesuit leak that flooded the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano with water last July 16, according to top agency managers.
MOJAVE, Calif. — Masten Space Systems has used its Xombie vertical landing launch vehicle to successfully fly what is thought to be a landing sensor package and software system for Astrobotic Technology, a Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP) contender.
PARIS — With Eurofighter Typhoon sales lagging, and Germany expected to reduce its planned order in the multinational program by 37 jets, Airbus Defense and Space is paring back export projections. “I’m not terribly optimistic as to future sales prospects beyond 2017 or so, because so far the export success has been rather meager,” Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders said during a Feb. 26 news conference unveiling the company’s 2013 earnings results. “In addition, we have governments considering uptake cuts for the Eurofighter.”
Skybox Imaging will use a commercial version of the Orbital Sciences Corp. Minotaur 1 rocket to launch six of its cubesat-derived, high-resolution imaging satellites in 2015, potentially clearing the way for Orbital to launch seven more of the Space Systems/Loral spacecraft later.
MOJAVE, Calif. — Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are modifying the interior of SpaceShipTwo (SS2) to accommodate the final configuration of the rocket motor that will be used to power the space vehicle to suborbital space later this year. The modifications also include fitting the interior and passenger seats for the first time. Completion work on the cabin, and the upgrades to install the full-duration-capable Sierra Nevada RM2 motor, are expected to take several months and will pave the way to the fourth powered test flight (PF04) around mid-year.
The civil upheaval in the Ukraine has had no discernible effect on production of the core stage of Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares launch vehicle, according to a company spokesman, who said the company has enough Ukrainian hardware on hand to continue launching cargo to the International Space Station in its pressurized Cygnus capsule into early 2015.
Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are modifying the interior of SpaceShipTwo (SS2) to accommodate the final configuration of the rocket motor that will be used to power the space vehicle to suborbital space later this year. The modifications also include fitting the interior and passenger seats for the first time. Completion work on the cabin, and the upgrades to install the full-duration-capable Sierra Nevada RM2 motor, are expected to take several months and will pave the way to the fourth powered test flight (PF04) around mid-year.
Final reports on the 2012 Delta IV anomaly that generated low thrust in its RL-10B-2 upper-stage engine are expected in April, but the successful launch of a Delta IV with the GPS IIF-5 spacecraft Feb. 20 indicates fixes added to the launcher’s engine-processing procedures worked as planned.
HOUSTON — NASA estimates it will spend between $8 billion and $11.2 billion on U.S. commercial resupply services in support of the six-person International Space Station between 2017 and 2024, according to a request for information (RFI) related to a forthcoming Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract announcement. The agreement will call on providers to deliver 14,250-16,750 kg (31,400-36,900 lb.) of pressurized cargo and 1,500-4,000 kg of unpressurized cargo annually.
NEW DELHI — India is lining up international customers for its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) as the country looks to boost its share of the global launch market. Antrix Corp., the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has signed an agreement with Singapore Technologies Electronics Ltd. to launch its first commercial satellite, TeLEOS-1.
ORLANDO, Fla. — The U.S. Air Force is planning to launch two new and previously classified space situational awareness satellites into geosynchronous orbit this year, according to Gen. William Shelton, who leads Air Force Space Command. The spacecraft were developed covertly by the Air Force and Orbital Sciences under the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSAP), according to service officials.
LOS ANGELES — Engineers at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center are completing key load tests on elements of a large hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator (HIAD) that ultimately could enable larger payloads to be delivered to the surface of other planets, or returned to Earth.
Valery Kubasov, the flight engineer on Soyuz 19, which docked with an Apollo spacecraft in Earth orbit in July 1975, died Feb. 19 in Moscow. He was 79. His death was announced on RSC Energia's website, which called him a “high-spirited instructor test cosmonaut.” No cause of death was given.
In the fraught atmosphere that wracked NASA and the spacefaring world after the Columbia accident in 2003, perhaps the sharpest condemnation stemmed from an off-the-cuff remark by the U.S. space agency's space shuttle program manager. Ron Dittemore said he did not seek imagery from classified reconnaissance satellites that might have revealed the extent of the launch-debris damage to the orbiter's left wing because nothing could have been done anyway. Sean O'Keefe, then the agency administrator, begged to differ.
HOUSTON — After a dozen years, NASA’s university-level student rocket competition is growing more difficult — much more like the real-life efforts to introduce powerful new propulsion sources like the agency’s deep space-enabling Space Launch System heavy lift rocket.
Satellite observations of unique, finger-like dark features on steep slopes of the mid-southern latitudes of Mars hint at dense briny water flows during the summer season, according to findings from 11 researchers associated with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey missions.
HOUSTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully completed its first NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station early Feb. 18, as the Dulles, Va.-based company’s “Orb-1” Cygnus capsule was unberthed from the U.S. segment Harmony module and released with Canada’s robot arm at 6:41 a.m. EST. The resupply craft is scheduled for a destructive re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 1:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 19.
NEW DELHI — India’s first manned space flight program has received a major boost with a higher budgetary allocation and development of a crew module structural assembly. The federal interim budget, announced on Feb. 17, increased the allocation for the human space flight program from 92 million rupees ($1.5 million) to 170 million rupees. The increase comes days after state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) handed over the crew module to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
An irony is playing out here over the U.S. government's fiscal 2015 budget: Not since the last recession ended has there been such widespread acknowledgement in Washington of where federal spending is headed, thanks to the so-called Ryan-Murray budget deal in December and 2014 appropriations, which became law Jan. 17. But Congress increasingly will be unable to do anything about it as 2014 continues.
When it comes to the fiscal 2015 budget request from the Obama administration, if you like your current major aerospace and defense program, you can keep it—for now. With the politically charged nature of final 2014 appropriations and their late-cycle passage Jan. 17, and next month's release of the 2015 request and accompanying long-term budget blueprint, more than the usual high-level information is already known about the White House's formal request as far as 2018.
