Virgin Galactic’s business plan does not appear to be negatively affected by the global economic downturn according to a September 4 Aviation Week & Space Technology article.

“With a rather unique support base of $40 million in deposits representing $60 million in total income from 300 suborbital adventurers, the project’s financial footing remains firm despite the global economic gloom. ‘These are the kinds of customers who are not much affected by that, and sales this month are better than they were a year ago. Regardless of what’s happening in the economy, success or failure is in the hands of the people in the project,’ says [Virgin Galactic President Will] Whitehorn.”

The company has its sights set not only on space tourism, but delivering cargo and science payloads to space, according to the article, with longer-term plans to develop a satellite launch vehicle to be launched from Abu Dhabi, which recently committed to buy a 32 percent stake in the company.

The European research and analysis firm Euroconsult has released a new report projecting $1 billion in annual data sales for earth observation satellites in 2009, “a figure expected to nearly quadruple by 2018.” The report, Satellite-Based Earth Obervations, Market Prospects to 2018, also reports that 260 Earth observation and meteorology satellites will be launched in the next 10 years “generating $27.4 billion in manufacturing revenues.”

The report is being released in advance of a one-day Symposium on Earth Observation Business to be held on September 10, 2009 in Paris, France. It is part of World Satellite Business Week (Sept. 7-10) to be held at the Westin in Paris.

Indonesia’s Palapa-D telecommunications satellite has successfully arrived in geostationary transfer orbit despite the underperformance of China’s Long March 3B rocket according to Thales Alenia Space, the satellite’s manufacturer. A press release from the company states that three perigee boost maneuvers were used to reach the correct orbit for this phase of the satellite’s checkout; it still must be boosted into geostationary orbit for its operational phase. Using some of the satellite’s fuel to achieve the correct orbit may reduce the satellite’s operational life, but the company said it had conducted the unplanned perigee burns “with optimised use of propellant.”

An editorial in today’s Washington Post issued a rallying call for NASA to embrace entrepreneurial space companies. Here’s an excerpt:

“Now that the station is nearly complete, this might be an optimal time to open space to entrepreneurs. Many companies claim they possess the capacity to transport humans and payloads into space; the [Augustine] review committee found their reports convincing enough to suggest that these space entrepreneurs could take over the transport of astronauts and supplies to the space station after the shuttle program ends.

“It’s time to boldly go where no man has gone before. That means opening space to the kind of private-sector competition that revolutionized cyberspace and making sure the next human exploratory efforts are based on real scientific need.”

Indonesia’s Palapa D telecommunications satellite, built by the European company Thales Alenia Space, failed to reach the correct orbit after being launched by a Chinese Long March 3B rocket today, according to China Daily. The failure is being investigated.

Thales Alenia Space is getting some better news today, however. The space shuttle Discovery successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) last night and the STS-128 and ISS crews are now attaching the Leonardo MPLM (Multi-Purpose Logistics Module) to one of the ISS nodes. Leonardo also was built by Thales Alenia Space. It is carrying scientific experiment racks, the COLBERT treadmill and other equipment and supplies.

President Obama has ordered a review of U.S. export control policy. In a press statement on Thursday, August 13, the White House announced that the President has directed that the National Economic Council (NEC) and National Security Council (NSC) “launch a broad-based interagency process for reviewing the overall U.S. export control system, including both the dual-use and defense trade processes.”

Export of U.S. technologies is controlled by either the State Department or the Commerce Department depending on the nature of the technology involved. The State Department implements the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that control export of items on the so-called “Munitions List” while the Commerce Department regulates exports of “dual-use” items that may have both commercial and military applications. The State Department controls are stricter than those of the Commerce Department.

The negative impact of the current implementation of ITAR on U.S. space activities has been widely studied and criticized for the past 10 years. The National Research Council released two studies, one in 2008 on the impact on space science cooperation and the other in 2009 on broader impacts. The latter study, co-chaired by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and Stanford University President John Hennessy, was the subject of a hearing by the House Science and Technology Committee in February. Former Lockheed Martin executive Tom Young and former Aerospace Corporation President Bill Ballhaus also co-chaired a recent study under the auspices of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. All called for ITAR reform.

The recommendations of those and other studies may finally bear fruit. Both the White House and Congress are now apparently willing to reconsider changes made by Congress in the late 1990s in the wake of the “Loral-Hughes” controversy.

In 1997, allegations were made that satellite manufacturers Space Systems/Loral and Hughes Electronics (now part of Boeing) violated export control laws and provided technical information to China that aided the Chinese military. The companies were helping China diagnose the reasons for a failed Chinese launch of a Loral-built commercial communications satellite. The allegations were investigated by the Justice Department and a special congressional committee chaired by then-Congressman Christopher Cox. The Cox committee’s report concluded that the companies deliberately transferred technical information and know-how to the Chinese. Congress subsequently passed legislation that moved export of commercial communications satellites back under State Department control effective March 1999. They had been under State Department control until the early 1990s when they were transferred to the Commerce Department’s dual-use list. By moving them back under ITAR, critics have argued that the U.S. commercial communications satellite industry has been deeply harmed, with European competitors offering “ITAR-free” satellites to prospective customers.

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) was one of several organizations releasing statements praising the Obama announcement.

The current issue (#15) of Online Journal of Space Communications profiles more than 50 women in the aerospace field, both government and private sector, including Yvonne Brill (consultant), Ellen Hoff (President, W.L. Pritchard & Co.), Wanda Austin (Aerospace Corp.), the late Eilene Galloway, Joanne Maguire (Lockheed Martin), Kay Sears (Intelsat General), Gwynne Shotwell (SpaceX), Nicole Stott (NASA astronaut), and Marjorie Townsend (consultant).

Sea Launch Company, LLC, which launches commercial communications satellites from a converted mobile ocean oil rig that travels from Long Beach, CA to the equator for launch, filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 22.

Kjell Karlsen, President and General Manager, assured customers that Sea Launch will continue to operate during the reorganization. The company is owned by Boeing (40%), Russia’s RSC-Energia (25%), Norway’s Aker ASA (20%), and Ukraine’s SDO Yuzhnoye/PO Yuzhmash (15%).

The announcement came one day after the successful launch of Malaysia’s MEASAT 3 by Land Launch, a partnership between Sea Launch and Moscow’s Space International Services that launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Spaceflightnow.com reported on that launch, which was delayed by almost a year due to damage to the spacecraft at the launch site last August.

Patti Grace Smith issued a rallying cry for commercial space transportation on Thursday at an AIAA symposium on Innovation in Orbit: An Exploration of Commercial Crew and Cargo Transportation.

The former Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the FAA, who is now a consultant, said that “America is losing the space race.” To be more competitive “we must embrace the new space companies, the private sector, in a way we never have before.” She postulated a future where commercial spaceflight would be the answer to low Earth orbit while NASA focused on “full ISS utilization and sustainable exploration beyond — a real, no kidding, public-private partnership”. The full text of her remarks are available here.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified before the House Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight on June 4 that a fundamental reexamination of the U.S. export control system is needed. The testimonies of GAO and other witnesses and an audiocast of the hearing are available on the committee’s website.

GAO’s Gregory Kutz testified that “The combined effect of the lack of restrictions over domestic sales and the ease of illegal export of these items is that sensitive dual-use and military items can be easily purchased and exported by terrorists or foreign governments without detection.” He later added that “The key to preventing the illegal export of these sensitive items used in nuclear, IED, and military applications is to stop the attempts to obtain the items at the source, because once sensitive items make it into the hands of terrorists or foreign government agents, the shipment and transport out of the United States is unlikely to be detected.”

GAO’s findings came after it created a fictitious domestic company that surreptitiously purchased, and later exported dummy versions of, several dual-use export-controlled items. They included a gyro-chip and a Ka-band power amplifier that can be used in space systems. An examination of current laws and regulations found that the companies that sold these items to GAO’s fictitious domestic company did so legally. U.S. enforcement personnel did not detect when GAO exported the dummy versions.

While that GAO investigation focused on dual-use items that are regulated by the Department of Commerce, another GAO witness, Anne-Marie Lasowski, testified about the overall U.S. export control system, which includes the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) that frustrate many aerospace companies and universities conducting space research. Her report concluded that the U.S. export control system in its entirety needs a “fundamental reexamination.” The system, which has eight programs that are intended to identify and protect weapons and defense-related technology exports, is “inherently complex. …. Specifically, poor interagency coordination, inefficiencies in processing licensing applications, and a lack of systematic assessments have created significant vulnerabilities in the export control system.”

A 2009 National Research Council report, Beyond Fortress America: National Security Controls on Science and Technology in a Globalized World, also called for a restructuring of the export control system, particularly ITAR. A 2008 report from the NRC’s Space Studies Board looked at the impact of ITAR on space science. The House Science and Technology Committee held a hearing on “The Impacts of U.S. Export Control Policies on Science and Technology Activities and Competitiveness” on February 25, 2009.