KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL., Jan. 6, 2014 (CASIS PR) – The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the nonprofit organization promoting and managing research onboard the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory, announced it will induct four new members to the organization’s Board of Directors.

In December 2012, CASIS named its original Board members, comprising seven distinguished scientists and/or academic administrators. The new members bring expertise and background in communication of science to the public, science especially well-suited to the ISS platform, or technology transfer and entrepreneurship. The latter are expected to leverage their background in commercialization to expand the user-base of the National Laboratory.

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This week on The Space Show with David Livingston: 1. Monday, Jan. 56 2014: 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CSTT): We welcome back AIAA Executive Director Dr. Sandra H. Magnus to discuss the upcomng AIAA SciTech 2014 conference. Seehttps://www.aiaa.org/scitech2014 for details. CLASSROOM 2. Monday, Jan. 6, 2014, 6 PM PST (9 PM EST, 8 PM CST): This Classroom program is a follow on to our recent radiation […]

Expedition 37 takes off for the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

By Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

Russia once again led the world in orbital launches in 2013, keeping the International Space Station supplied with a study stream of crew members and cargo while earning hard currency with commercial satellite launches.

Although the vast majority of Russia’s launches were successful, the spectacular failure in July of a Proton rocket — which nosedived into the ground shortly after liftoff — accelerated efforts to reform the nation’s failure-prone space program. By the end of the year, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had a new leader and a major effort was underway to consolidate a large part of the bloated and inefficient space sector under a single government-owned company.

During 2013, Russia introduced a new variant of its venerable Soyuz rocket while also making progress on constructing a new spaceport in the Far East and developing a larger human spacecraft to replace the Soyuz transport and a heavy-lift booster to facilitate deep space exploration.

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A Proton crashes with three GLONASS satellites.

For Roscosmos boss Vladimir Popovkin, the first half of 2013 was a welcome respite in an otherwise difficult tenure. A series of launch vehicles — 15 of them in all — lifted off flawlessly from the Baikonur and Plesetsk cosmodromes. All their payloads reached their intended orbits, exactly as planned. As summer dawned, it looked as though the Russian space program had finally put a string of embarrassing launch failures behind it.

Then came July. And everything changed.

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Falcon 9 lifts off with the SES-8 satellite. (Credit: SpaceX)

Europe’s largest defense and aerospace company, EADS, has recently restructured and re-branded its operations and announced a series of planned layoffs designed to make the company leaner and more competitive. In the process, officials have acknowledged the competitive pressures placed on it by SpaceX.

EADS re-organized itself as the Airbus Group, with three divisions that include Airbus, Airbus Defence & Space, and Airbus Helicopters. The Airbus Defence & Space group includes the space company formerly known as Astrium.

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A GSLV-II rocket lifts off with the GSAT-14 spacecraft and a domestically-produced cryogenic upper stage. (Credit: ISRO)

The Indian space agency ISRO is celebrating today after a GSLV-II rocket launch that featured the first successful demonstration of the nation’s new cryogenic upper stage.

After the rocket lifted off from Isro’s spaceport at Sriharikota and successfully deployed the GSAT-14 communications satellite 17 minutes later, officials were able to declare success in what has been a nearly 20-year effort to develop the advanced propulsion technology.

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Zenit launch from Baikonur

Ukraine had a mixed record in space in 2013. While the Dnepr rocket returned to service with a pair of successful launches after a two-year gap, one of two Zenit boosters ended up in a watery grave after it failed shortly after launch.

Ukrainian companies had better luck as a components supplier. Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares — which boasts a Ukrainian-supplied first stage — racked up two flawless flights. Meanwhile, the European Vega booster made a second successful flight with a Ukrainian fourth stage on board.

Meanwhile, a joint partnership with Brazil to launch the Cylcone-4 rocket from South America made progress even as it suffered additional schedule delays that have pushed back the maiden flight into 2015.

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X-37B after landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base on June 16, 2012. (Credit: Boeing/USAF)

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., Jan. 3, 2014 (Boeing PR) – Boeing [NYSE:BA] will expand its presence in Florida by adding technology, engineering and support jobs at the Kennedy Space Center. Financial and employment details are not being disclosed.

Investments will be made to convert the former space shuttle facility, OPF-1, to a facility that would enable the U.S. Air Force to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), a 29-foot-long, reusable unmanned spacecraft.

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Cygnus berthed at ISS. (Credit: NASA)

BOULDER, Colo. (CU-Boulder PR) — NASA Television will provide live coverage of the launch of Orbital Sciences Corp.’s commercial Cygnus spacecraft on Tuesday, Jan. 7 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which will be carrying two University of Colorado Boulder payloads to the International Space Station.

The two CU-Boulder payloads — a biomedical antibiotic experiment and an educational K-12 experiment involving ant behavior in microgravity — are slated to be launched aboard Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares rocket at 11:55 a.m. MST. Both experiments were designed by BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA-funded center in CU-Boulder’s aerospace engineering sciences department.

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A false color infrared image of the Antares launch. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

EDITOR’S NOTE: The launch has slipped to Jan. 8 at 1:32 p.m. EST.

WALLOPS ISLAND, Virg. (NASA PR) — The NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport are set to support the launch of Orbital Sciences’ Corp. Antares rocket at 1:55 p.m. EST, Jan. 7.

The Antares rocket will carry Orbital’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.

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