Computer generated image showing the debris cloud around Earth.
USAF Boosts Space Situational Awareness
Aviation Week
U.S. military officials say they expect to have enough personnel and new computing power in place by October to warn U.S. and foreign satellite operators of possible collision hazards to their roughly 800 maneuverable platforms.
Saltsburg grad fills back-up role in Russian spaceflight
TribLIVE
“It is such a natural step for me,” [Barbara] Barrett said in a phone interview this week from Russia, where she is prepping for the planned Sept. 30 launch of Soyuz TMA-16. “One of the great adventures of humankind has been the ability to go into space.”
The Sea Launch international consortium, which announced its bankruptcy last week, will draft a corporate reorganization program within two months, consortium press secretary Paula Korn told Interfax.
President Orders Sweep U.S. Space Policy Review
Space News
U.S. President Barack Obama has given his administration until Oct. 1 to scrutinize existing national space policy as part of a sweeping review that could culminate in a new strategy governing American civil and military space activities.
AEROJET PRESS RELEASE
Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, announced today that it has completed manufacturing and assembly of an advanced 5,500-lbf Liquid Oxygen (LOX) Liquid Methane (LCH4) rocket engine. Aerojet will soon begin testing this advanced engine to provide valuable data that will validate the key design features necessary to extend the technology development of next-generation propulsion systems being developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
$100M shifted to Ares program
Orlando Sentinel
For months, a powerful Republican senator from Alabama has fought the Obama administration to block $150 million that the White House wanted to spend to help private companies build rockets capable of reaching the international space station.
These images show cratered regions near the moon's Mare Nubium region, as photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LROC instrument. Impact craters feature prominently in both images. Older craters have softened edges, while younger craters appear crisp. Each image shows a region 1,400 meters (0.87 miles) wide, and features as small as 3 meters (9.8 feet) wide can be discerned. The bottoms of both images face lunar north.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has transmitted its first images since reaching lunar orbit June 23. The spacecraft has two cameras — a low resolution Wide Angle Camera and a high resolution Narrow Angle Camera. Collectively known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, they were activated June 30. The cameras are working well and have returned images of a region a few kilometers east of Hell E crater in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium.
Launch site wish: Space Florida aims to secure Minotaur job
Florida Today
Space Florida has given the Air Force a proposal to launch small payloads from Launch Complex 46, the easternmost launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The U.S. Air Force’s Space and Missile Development Center, Space and Missile Test Wing, last month issued a request for launch proposals from four spaceports: Cape Canaveral, Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska; Wallops Island, Va.; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.
Under the request, a military contractor would launch payloads, possibly small spy satellites, into low Earth orbit using the Minotaur class solid motor rocket, which is built from decommissioned
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
A taikonaut emerges from China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a successful orbital flight
Why the next man on the moon will be Chinese
The Guardian
“The attitude to the space programme in China is a little bit like the attitude towards space exploration in the western world in the 1960s,” says Kevin Fong, an expert in space medicine at University College London. “There’s a deep fervour among their university kids for space technology. The main difference between China and America now is that China can just do something – they don’t need to ask permission or go through a democratic process and get the budget approved.”
Hybrid Satellite-Cell Pocket Phone May Arrive This Year
PC World
TerreStar Networks plans to launch a mobile phone service this year that offers a mix of satellite and cellular service. Unlike the bulky, brick-sized satellite handsets of years past, a TerreStar device will be no larger than a conventional smartphone.
Billionaut Guy Laliberte says the tens of millions he is spending to go into space will help promote his environmental foundation.
The Space Generation Advisory Council is hosting a “Move an Asteroid” competition. First prize is to attend IAC and SGC ’09 in South Korea.
