Category: Commercial

Events of Interest: Week of January 22-27, 2012

Events of Interest: Week of January 22-27, 2012

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 22, 2012 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 22, 2012 1:03 pm ET

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.

During the Week

The House and Senate both will be in session this week and President Obama will deliver his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.   The American Meteorological Society (AMS) holds its annual meeting beginning today in New Orleans, LA, with “town hall” sessions on topics related to earth observing satellites on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The four-week World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2012, convened by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) where the nations of the world meet to allocate spectrum for terrestrial and space uses, begins in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sunday-Thursday, January 22-26

Monday, January 23 – Friday, February 17

Tuesday, January 24

Wednesday, January 25

 Friday, January 27

Last Updated: Jan 22, 2012 1:03 pm ET
AP: SpaceX Flight Off Until Late March

AP: SpaceX Flight Off Until Late March

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 20, 2012 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 20, 2012 4:17 pm ET

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting this afternoon that the test flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) will not take place until the end of March.  It had been scheduled for February 7.

SpaceX sent an email to reporters on Monday stating that the flight test would be postponed, but did not announce a new date.   In that email, SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham said that the company believed there were “a few areas that will benefit from additional work and will optimize the safety and success of this mission,” and the company was working with NASA to set a new date.

Marcia Dunn of the AP reports (as published via the Washington Times website) that today “officials confirmed the launch would not occur until late March.”  No further details were provided as to whether the officials are from NASA or SpaceX.

This flight test is intended to demonstrate that SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft can be launched to and berth with the ISS.   It is the combination of the last two of three test flights the company is to conduct as part of its effort to build a space transportation system to deliver cargo, and someday crews, to the ISS.   NASA is anxious to have SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., the other company participating in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, begin sending cargo to the ISS this year.   The termination of the space shuttle program last year ended NASA’s ability to send people or cargo to the ISS. 

Last Updated: Jan 20, 2012 4:17 pm ET
Apollo Artifacts: Which to Sell, Which to Protect?

Apollo Artifacts: Which to Sell, Which to Protect?

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 10, 2012 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 10, 2012 6:21 pm ET

This year is the 40th anniversary of the last — or perhaps “most recent” — human visit to the Moon and it is starting off with controversy over whether the astronauts who participated in the Apollo program have the right to sell mementoes of those missions.  At the same time, some historians are trying to preserve the artifacts that remain on the lunar surface as companies and other countries make plans to send robots or people there.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, himself a former NASA astronaut — though from the space shuttle era, not the earlier Apollo missions — met with four Apollo astronauts yesterday to discuss the rules that guide whether their personal mementoes are their property or the government’s.   Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, Apolllo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, and Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickert, met with Bolden along with representatives of other astronauts and NASA personnel.   Bolden said in a press statement that the meeting was to talk about “how to resolve the misunderstandings and ownership questions regarding flight mementoes and other artifacts.”   Bolden called the men “American heroes, fellow astronauts and personal friends who have acted in good faith” and promised to work on resolving “the right policy and legal paths forward…”

NASA has not taken kindly to the actions of some Apollo astronauts who have sold or attempted to sell mementoes in their possession.   Quite recently, Lovell reportedly sold a checklist from his ill-fated Apollo 13 mission at auction for $400,000, setting off the latest wave of concern. Bolden said that he believes there have been “fundamental misunderstandings and unclear policies” and the agency will “explore all policy, legislative and other legal means” to clarify ownership and “ensure that appropriate artifacts are preserved and available for display to the American people.”

While those discussions proceed, others are focused on preserving artifacts left behind on the Moon.   Resurgent interest in the Moon not only for scientific studies or human exploration, but also potential commercial activities, could mean that sites and items of historical interest could be damaged or destroyed.   Should the Apollo 11 landing site and the bottom half of its lunar lander, which remains on the Moon, not to mention the American flag implanted by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, be preserved for history or are future robotic or human explorers free to tread upon or take whatever they find?

Writing in the The Space Review in November 2011, Matthew Kleiman, who chairs the space law committee of the American Bar Association Section of Science &Technology Law, concluded that the only guarantee for “comprehensive protection” would be an international agreement.  He added, however, that “international space law and traditional property and tort law” offer “limited mechanisms.”

NASA issued a set of recommendations last year, posted on the CollectSpace website, about what exactly should be preserved on the lunar surface.  Entitled “NASA’s Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities:  How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts,” the document was issued on July 20, 2011, the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing — the first time humans walked on the Moon.  Google Lunar X-Prize, which is sponsoring a competition where a team can win a bonus if its robotic spacecraft makes a “precision landing near an Apollo site or other lunar sites of interest,” applauded release of the document in an October 13, 2011 statement.

The New York Times took note of the debate over preserving lunar artifacts on the Moon yesterday, but did not mention the corollary debate over what the Apollo astronauts can do with their own mementoes.

Last Updated: Jan 10, 2012 6:21 pm ET
Russia's Soyuz Scores Success with Globalstar

Russia's Soyuz Scores Success with Globalstar

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 28, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 28, 2011 2:47 pm ET

Today brought good news for the Russian space program after a series of launch failures over the past 12 months raised concerns about the state of the Russian aerospace industry.  A Soyuz rocket successfully placed six second-generation Globalstar satellites into orbit, just days after a similar Soyuz rocket failed to launch a Russian Meridian communications satellite.

The Soyuz 2.1a used for Globalstar is very similar to the Soyuz 2.1b used for Meridian on December 23.   The cause of the Soyuz 2.1b failure is still being investigated, but initial reports indicate a problem with the third-stage.  Debris from the rocket and satellite rained down over populated areas of northern Russia.    Meridian satelites are successors to the military Molniya series of communications satellites placed into highly elliptical orbit for decades.

The Globalstar launch today was conducted on a commercial basis through Starsem, a Russian-European joint venture that includes the France Arianespace launch services company.   Today’s rocket is similar to the type of Soyuz rocket that is launched from Arianespace’s launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana.    Soyuz is the workhorse of the Russian launch vehicle program and exists in several versions, including one that is used to launch crews to the International Space Station (ISS).  The failure of yet another version of Soyuz in August that was supposed to send a cargo spacecraft to the ISS caused a delay in launching ISS crews.  Whether the December 23 Soyuz launch failure will affect ISS operations remains unclear.

Last Updated: Dec 28, 2011 2:47 pm ET
Globalstar Launch on Soyuz To Proceed, Proton Launch of SES-4 Further Delayed

Globalstar Launch on Soyuz To Proceed, Proton Launch of SES-4 Further Delayed

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 27, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 27, 2011 2:38 pm ET

Satellite operator Globalstar will proceed with its planned launch of six satellites tomorrow on a Russian Soyuz rocket despite a Soyuz failure on December 23 that destroyed a Russian military communications satellite.  Meanwhile, launch of a different commercial communications satellite, SES-4 (formerly NSS-14), on a Russian Proton rocket that should have occurred yesterday will be delayed by approximately 25 days because of technical problems with the Proton’s Briz (Breeze) upper stage.

The Proton launch was scrubbed shortly before launch.  Initially it was unclear as to whether the problem could be resolved quickly or if the launch vehicle would have to be rolled back from the pad.   The decision to roll back was made later in the day and International Launch Services, a U.S.-based company that sells commercial launches on Proton, subsequently announced that the launch would be delayed for about 25 days because of problems “with the avionics system” of the Briz-M upper stage.  Both Proton and Briz are manufactured by Khrunichev. 

Russia’s usually reliable launch vehicles have suffered a series of failures in the past 12 months, most recently the loss of a Soyuz-2.1b rocket on December 23 that doomed a Russian military communications satellite.  That failure, however, is not deterring satellite operator Globalstar from proceeding with its launch on a Soyuz scheduled for tomorrow, December 28.   The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is intended to place six second-generation Globalstar satellites into orbit.   This launch was arranged through Starsem, a European-Russian joint venture that includes French launch company Arianespace.  Starsem conducts commercial Soyuz launches both from Baikonur and from Arianespace’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.  Arianespace and Globalstar issued press releases today indicating that the launch plans are unchanged. 

There are many versions of the Soyuz rocket and the Soyuz-2.1b that failed on December 23 is slightly different from version that will be used for Globalstar.   Arianespace stated that it would be the “same basic modernized version of  Soyuz” as is used in Kourou, but other sources report that the Kourou version, Soyuz-ST, is specially designed to operate in the humid climate in South America, whereas the version used at Baikonur is designated Soyuz 2-1a.     RussianSpaceWeb.com has detailed technical information about the differences in these Soyuz variants.

The December 23 launch failure and the Proton problem yesterday led Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to put Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin “in charge of Russia’s space sector.”  Rogozin, Russia’s former ambassador to NATO, had just been assigned as Deputy Prime Minister and made responsible for ferreting out the problems in Russia’s defense and atomic energy sectors.  Yesterday’s action adds space to his portfolio.

Last Updated: Dec 27, 2011 2:38 pm ET
Russia Appoints Deputy Prime Minister to Lead Space Sector

Russia Appoints Deputy Prime Minister to Lead Space Sector

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 26, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 26, 2011 8:02 pm ET

Russia’s news agency ITAR-TASS revealed today that on Monday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin “empowered” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin “to be in charge of Russia’s space sector.”

Rogozin wants a report on Thursday from Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, on the most recent launch failure, according to ITAR-TASS.  A Soyuz rocket failed to place a military Meridian communications satellite into orbit on December 23.  Today, the launch of a Proton rocket was delayed and the rocket rolled back from the launch pad because of an unspecified technical problem.

In apparent reference to Putin, ITAR-TASS stated:  “According to the head of government, after military acceptance inspection was cancelled many things have changed for the worse. ‘It does not mean we must get back to the former regulation instruments but its [sic] is absolutely obvious that the existing instruments are not enough,’ he added.”   Putin is Russia’s former president, current prime minister, and candidate to become president again next year.   Dmitry Medvedev is Russia’s president.

Russia has experienced an unusual string of launch failures — six in the last 12 months, of which five were in 2011. 

 

 

Last Updated: Dec 26, 2011 8:02 pm ET
Technical Problem Delays Russian Proton Launch-UPDATE

Technical Problem Delays Russian Proton Launch-UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 26, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 26, 2011 4:34 pm ET

UPDATE:  This story has been updated to indicate that the launch vehicle has been rolled back from the launch pad.

Russia delayed the launch of Europe’s SES-4 communications satellite today because of technical problems with the Proton rocket.

Russia has experienced an unusual number of rocket problems in the past 12 months, starting with the failure of a Proton last December that doomed three GLONASS navigation satellites.   Five more failures since then have stranded spacecraft in transfer orbits or not gotten them into orbit at all, including a cargo spacecraft headed to the International Space Station, the Phobos-Grunt Mars probe, and just three days ago, a military communications satellite.  A variety of launch vehicles and upper stages from different manufacturers have been involved.

Russia’s news agency ITAR-TASS reported Monday afternoon Eastern Standard Time that the rocket “has been removed from the launch site in order to replace some of the instruments and run additional checks.”  A new launch date was not announced.

This is a commercial launch for International Launch Services (ILS), a U.S.-based company that sells launches on the Proton.  SES-4 belongs to Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES.

The satellite was originally built for New Skies, which was headquartered in the Netherlands, and carried a New Skies designation — NSS-14.  SES acquired New Skies in 2005.

Last Updated: Dec 26, 2011 4:34 pm ET
SpacePolicyOnline.com Unveils Revamped Website

SpacePolicyOnline.com Unveils Revamped Website

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 19, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 19, 2011 1:48 pm ET

Today marks the launch of our revamped website.  The event should be seamless, but if you encounter any difficulties, please let us know at info@spacepolicyonline.com or marcia.s.smith@gmail.com.

WHAT WE KEPT

Based on the many positive comments we’ve received over the past two years, we’ve kept the same look and feel.  Our web address is the same and if you are getting our RSS feed nothing should change.   You will still be able to access all the free content to which you are accustomed — our objective, non-partisan reporting and analysis; handy fact sheets, hearing and meeting summaries; lists of GAO, NRC and other reports of interest; and a listing of events of interest to the space policy community.

WHAT’S NEW

  • SHARE YOUR VIEWS:  You can now post comments using Disqus.   We encourage debate, but ask that everyone keep his or her  remarks professional and dignified.   Passion is OK, vitriol – no.  As we state at the bottom of the Disqus comment box, SpacePolicyOnline.com has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
  • SIGN UP FOR A DAILY EMAIL NOTIFICATION:  As requested, you can now sign up for daily emails to keep apprised of new stories that we’ve posted.  In the blue bar at the top of our home page, click the envelope icon and enter your email address.   We don’t do anything with your email address; this service is provided automatically through Feedburner.
  • SEARCH MORE EASILY:   Our search box is in the same place (top right), but the search engine recognizes longer strings of characters, making searching much easier. 
  • VIEW EVENTS OF INTEREST AS A LIST:   We’ve replaced the calendar on our home page with a list of upcoming events, but if you liked the calendar format, you can still see one by clicking on the “full calendar with filters” link at the bottom of the list.
  • SHARE USING EMAIL, SOCIAL MEDIA AND OTHER TOOLS:  You can now easily share our stories with others via Twitter, Facebook and other e-tools.  We’ve also made it easier for you to follow us on Twitter or Facebook by using the now-familiar icons on the top right of the home page.    If you don’t use Twitter yourself, you can see what we are tweeting and retweeting right there on our home page.  Twitter is a terrific news feed and we find lots of interesting tweets by others to retweet and bring to your attention, so please check our “Twitter widget” throughout the day.
  • ADVERTISE ON SPACEPOLICYONLINE.COM:   Contact us at info@spacepolicyonline.com for details. 

WHAT’S COMING

Soon we will be offering premium reports for purchase on a per-report basis or by subscription.  Building on the tradition of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports that SpacePolicyOnline.com founder and editor Marcia Smith wrote for more than three decades, our premium reports will provide objective and non-partisan information and analysis about commercial, military and civil space policy and programs in the United States and around the world.  Stay tuned for details!

We’re excited about the new site and hope you are, too.   With best wishes to you and yours for happy holidays and a sparkling New Year!

Marcia Smith and Laura Delgado

Last Updated: Dec 19, 2011 1:48 pm ET
Burns: GPS — Key Economic Benefit of Space Program — is at Risk

Burns: GPS — Key Economic Benefit of Space Program — is at Risk

By Laura Delgado | Posted: December 10, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: July 27, 2017 8:36 am ET

At the A Day Without Space: Economic Security Ramifications seminar yesterday, Captain Joe Burns of United Airlines sent one message loud and clear: the future of aviation depends on GPS and that future is being threatened. 

Burns, who serves as United’s Managing Director of Technology and Flight Test, enumerated several reasons why GPS is important to aviation, including safer and better precision operations and a reduction in fuel burn and greenhouse gas emissions for an industry that is “exceptionally environmentally sensitive.”

According to Burns, the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, a term used to describe transformations in the air transportation system that would increase efficiency and allow it to meet growing global demand, is “one hundred percent dependent on GPS.” From seemingly simple solutions like helping pilots find available gates, to live-saving safety improvements such as improving terrain awareness and enabling airlines to “de-conflict” in busy hubs like Chicago and New York, GPS is absolutely critical, he said.

These NextGen programs, some of which are already being implemented under the so-called NowGen effort, translate into considerable economic savings, sometimes exceeding 1,500 pounds of fuel per flight. This translates to millions of pounds of fuel a year, which Burns said would help reduce airlines’ fuel expenses and fuel accounts for about a third of United’s expenses

With this much promise, Burns is seriously concerned about the risks facing GPS. Specifically, he talked about the proliferation of inexpensive GPS jammers and LightSquared’s proposed mobile broadband system. While both are “a real threat to GPS,” Burns said that Lightsquared in particular was “a bit scary for our future operations,” since its signals “would bleed into the GPS system.” He asserted that none of the proposed filters shows any promise from an aviation industry standpoint and he hopes that LightSquared is denied permission to implement its hybrid satellite-terrestrial system.  “Without GPS, clearly, NextGen is dead in the water,” he said.

Also speaking at the seminar was Bill Wilt, Vice President for North American Sales at GeoEye.  He described his company’s activities in collecting, analyzing and delivering commercial satellite imagery products to customers and governments around the world. Wilt explained how these products not only support activities such as research and national defense, but are also part of some of the aviation programs that Burns mentioned.

Rebecca Spyke Keiser, NASA Associate Deputy Administrator for Policy Integration, presented an overview of the broad economic impact of the agency’s activities. The NASA budget equals about “half a penny of every federal dollar spent,” said Keiser, who lamented the persisting impression in some sectors that the NASA budget is a lot larger.

Keiser offered examples of NASA’s involvement in situations with clear economic impacts such as helping with remediation of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the volcanic ash from Iceland that disrupted air transportation in 2010. She also mentioned NASA’s 1,750 “spin offs,” technologies that have been successfully transferred to the private sector, as well as studies that track how many jobs and dollars are spent in a given locality as part of a specific program like the James Webb Space Telescope. Although it would be “hard to imagine what our economy would be like if NASA were not around,” precisely quantifying economic benefits as a result of NASA activities remains quite a challenge, she said.

The A Day Without Space series is hosted by the TechAmerica Space Enterprise Council and the George C. Marshall Institute.

 

 

Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 8:36 am ET
UPDATED: Events of Interest: Week of December 5-9, 2011

UPDATED: Events of Interest: Week of December 5-9, 2011

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 3, 2011 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: December 5, 2011 6:18 pm ET

The following events may be of interest in the coming week.   For more information, check our calendar on the right menu or click the links below.  The House and Senate both are in session this week. 

Monday-Friday, December 5-9 

Tuesday, December 6

  • Women in Aerospace, Space Telescopes: Today, Tomorrow and Beyond, 2325 Rayburn House Office Building, 12:00-2:00 pm EST
  • United Launch Alliance (ULA) Celebrates Its Fifth Anniversary, National Press Club, Hoelman Lounge, Washington, DC, 12:30-1:30 pm
  • HSS&T hearing on James Webb Space Telescope, 2318 Rayburn House Office Building. 2:00 pm (note the time change)

Thursday, December 8

 Friday, December 9 

  • NASA Future Forum 2, Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm PST (noon-3:30 pm EST)
Last Updated: Dec 05, 2011 6:18 pm ET

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