New Delhi – The Indian Space Research Organization will launch the communication satellite GSAT 10 from French Guiana on Sept. 22, the ISRO’s 101st mission. “We are going to French Guiana for the launch because the satellite weighs nearly 3.5 tons, which cannot be lifted by any of our vehicles – PSLV or GSLV,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says.
Pasadena, Calif. – Space Exploration Technologies ( SpaceX ) is negotiating with the FAA to allow the Grasshopper reusable launch test vehicle to fly at higher altitudes as part of a planned series of launch and landing evaluations.
Contractors hoping to cash in on NASA ’s plans to buy seats for its astronauts on commercial crew vehicles bound to the International Space Station will have to convince the space agency that their spacecraft are safe as they work to finish developing them.
Stephen Squyres, Chairman of the NASA Advisory Council, stressed the importance of equally funding the Orion/Space Launch System (SLS) project as well as the current Curiosity mission on Mars and potential future red planet missions during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee hearing on Sept. 12. “I would sincerely hope it is not an either/or proposition,” said Squyres.
Pasadena, Calif. – A prototype vertical takeoff and landing suborbital launch vehicle under development by Masten Space crashed Sept. 11 during a flight test at Mojave, Calif.
As CEO of EADS, Louis Gallois was repeatedly rebuffed by his board when he sought to acquire U.S. defense companies. Less than four months after Gallois' retirement, a single deal could finally make EADS a top supplier to the Pentagon—and in the process create the largest aerospace and defense (A&D) company ever.
Mars Curiosity rover's three left wheels frame the lower slopes of Mount Sharp in this two-frame mosaic collected Sept. 9 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (Mahli) during tests of the robotic arm.
An article on Neil Armstrong in the Sept. 3/10 issue (page 32) misstated the date of the Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire and referred to alarms on the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, with the command module's name, Columbia. Also, details of Gemini 8's early return to Earth were omitted. After the pilots disengaged the primary maneuvering system and used the reentry system to regain control of the spacecraft, flight rules dictated that they deorbit.
It wasn't easy to kill Lockheed Martin's F-22, but resurrecting the Raptor could be just as difficult. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the issue in play during a Sept. 8 interview with a Virginia television station near the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, saying if he were elected president, he would add more of the fifth-generation fighters. But it's not clear whether the pledge aimed squarely at the local audience would fly even if Romney wins in November.
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver raised some eyebrows last week with a provocative sound bite: “We're going back to the Moon.” A prime mover in the Obama administration decision to kill the “Moon, Mars and Beyond” Constellation program, Garver explained that she was talking about cislunar space, with a mission as early as 2017. That would be the planned first flight of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle atop the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
A prototype vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) suborbital launch vehicle under development by Masten Space Systems crashed Sept. 11 during a flight test at Mojave, Calif. Masten Business Development Director Colin Ake says the Xaero rocket was preparing to make a vertical landing and was around two-thirds of the way through its mission when the accident took place.
Can industry really police itself? That's the question the Transportation Department's Inspector General will pose the second time starting Sept. 19, in an audit of the FAA's voluntary disclosure reporting program. The IG's review of the program comes as lawmakers continue to be concerned about the findings of a 2008 Inspector General's audit that found an FAA inspector and Southwest Airlines ducked the system.
Last week, a fresh set of calls urged Congress to address the nation's financial situation. Executives from Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and EADS North America are proceeding with pre-election plans to warn thousands of workers that they might be laid off early next year. Two former Treasury secretaries, one Republican and one Democrat, said failing to address America's debt problem has dire economic and foreign policy implications. And Moody's rating agency now says the nation's long-held AAA rating hinges on congressional budget negotiations. Sen.
Francesco Caio Title: CEO, Avio Age: 55 Birthplace: Naples, Italy Education: Engineering degree from Milan Politecnico and MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
As Airbus's new CEO, Fabrice Bregier, and COO, Gunter Butschek, make major changes to the aircraft manufacturer's organization, the company's position within the EADS group has been strengthened. Two Airbus executives, Butschek and COO for Customers John Leahy, have been added to EADS's executive board, which now has 13 members including CEO Tom Enders.
CLASSIFIED PAYLOAD: A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 launched NROL-36, a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Thursday at 2:39 p.m. PDT. As is typical of classified missions, there was only limited comment about the success of the ascent or the health of the payload. The only confirmation was success through the payload fairing separation. The launcher included a 4-meter fairing, no solid rocket boosters and a single Centaur upper stage.
Houston – Japan’s third H-II Transfer Vehicle departed the International Space Station on Sept. 12 following a seven-week stay. NASA and Japanese astronauts Joe Acaba and Akihiko Hoshide unberthed the 32-ft.-long spacecraft from the station’s U.S. segment Harmony module using the Canadian robot arm shortly before 7 a.m. EDT. The capsule was released at 11:50 a.m. EDT .
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is a day away from finishing its thoroughgoing checkout period, and soon will begin driving in search of a good rock to touch with its robotic arm and analyze. Performance of the rover’s Canadian-built alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) has checked out on a sample target of polished basalt from Earth that is mounted on the rover’s deck. Plans call for Curiosity to set off Friday in search of a piece of Mars basalt to reach out and touch with the APXS sensor on the end of the rover’s robotic arm.
