U.S. Air Force officials are crafting plans for a 2011 demonstration of a Global Positioning System-tracking system for ascending rockets as part of a slow but comprehensive transformation of the Pentagon’s launch ranges.
Video showing the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS), which NASA is considering as an alternative to the traditional escape tower for its Orion capsule.
The Aerospace Industries Association has released its annual year-end review and forecast examining the U.S. aerospace industry. Below is the summary; additional statistical tables, slides and comments can be found here.
Aerospace Industries Association
2009 Year End Review and 2010 Forecast
AIA Research Center
The aerospace industry is still smarting from 2008, a year when the world’s financial markets nearly collapsed, sending many industries – including several segments of the aerospace industry – into a tailspin. Yet, aerospace entered this difficult period strong and resilient, and the momentum generated by a remarkable period of growth carried the industry through the last year, and will push aerospace sales to another record year in 2009. AIA estimates that aerospace sales will reach $214.1 billion in 2009, up more than 4 percent from 2008.
SPACE FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE
Dec. 11, 2009
The Space Foundation provided NASA’s new associate administrator for public affairs an opportunity to talk with reporters at a Space Foundation Correspondents Group (SFCG) breakfast on Dec. 10 in Washington, D.C.
Morrie Goodman, who has been in his position seven weeks, told the group he feels that NASA’s biggest challenge will be continuing to inspire people about the space program as the Space Shuttle retires and no new vehicle is immediately available.
CSF PRESS RELEASE
Astronauts, researchers, educators, senior government officials including the director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Dr. Pete Worden, and the head of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, Dr. George Nield, and representatives from commercial space companies and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, will be among the speakers at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference on February 18-20, 2010. The agenda and speaker list for the conference, which will take place in Boulder, Colorado, was publicly released today and is available for download by clicking here [pdf].
The above clip is a trailer for director Jonathan Nolan’s 9-11 documentary, “Fortunate Sons.” Nolan is the executive producer of the Starwalker reality show, which is a competition to send two contestants into space aboard Soyuz rockets. The film was produced by Greg Smith, who is heading up Starwalker’s Southern Hemisphere operations.
The clip seems to hint at conspiracies involving the attacks, but it lacks any real specifics. The second excerpt – show after the break – is more substantial but not much clearer.
Chandrayaan-1 Project Director M Annadurai has been honored with the H.K. Firodia award for his contribution to India’s first lunar mission.
Charles Lindbergh’s grandson Erik has launched a website for the Lindbergh Prize, which will be unveiled in March during an event on the U.S. West Coast. There are not a lot of specifics available, except that the prize “will provide a tremendous stimulus to leverage creative solutions for a resilient future.”
Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center
Florida Trend Executive Editor Mark Howard has some very nice things to say about Space Florida President Frank DiBello, who was brought in to take over the floundering agency earlier this year:
DiBello, a gracious, well-considered man, has a comprehensive understanding of how the space industry ties into a host of endeavors, from agriculture and environmental monitoring to research in fields ranging from life sciences to communications, robotics and emergency management. In just a few months on the job, he’s produced a master plan for the agency — a legally required task that his predecessor never completed — with the outlines of a long-term strategy.
From top to bottom, pictured (not to scale) are the moon, Venus, and an asteroid. These three celestial bodies from our solar system are possible candidates for NASA's next space venture.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA has selected three proposals as candidates for the agency’s next space venture to another celestial body in our solar system. The final project selected in mid-2011 may provide a better understanding of Earth’s formation or perhaps the origin of life on our planet.
The proposed missions would probe the atmosphere and crust of Venus; return a piece of a near-Earth asteroid for analysis; or drop a robotic lander into a basin at the moon’s south pole to return lunar rocks back to Earth for study.
NASA will select one proposal for full development after detailed mission concept studies are completed and reviewed. The studies begin during 2010, and the selected mission must be ready for launch no later than Dec. 30, 2018. Mission cost, excluding the launch vehicle, is limited to $650 million.
“These are projects that inspire and excite young scientists, engineers and the public,” said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These three proposals provide the best science value among eight submitted to NASA this year.”
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In comments that baffled many experts worldwide, Roskosmos head Anatoly Perminov said his agency is considering a project to deflect the asteroid Apophis, which has a 1-in-233,000 chance of hitting the Earth in 2036. RIA Novosti reports:
“A scientist recently told me an interesting thing about the path [of an asteroid] constantly nearing Earth… He has calculated that it will surely collide with Earth in the 2030s,” Anatoly Perminov said during an interview with the Voice of Russia radio.
China's Tiangong-1 space laboratory with a Shenzhou spacecraft approaching it. (Credit: CNSA)
Chinese officials have said that they plan to launch their Tiangong-1 space station by the end of next year or in 2011, according to a report on CCTV.
Qi Faren, Shenzhou-5 designer, said, “Quality is the key to technology. We must guarantee a successful launch. We will launch it whenever we are ready. It will be the end of 2010, or the beginning of 2011.”
