Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

18-22 February (22 February 2010)

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch two astronauts into space within six to seven years. Nano satellites designed by students of Satyabama University, Chennai will be launched on a PSLV rocket in June or July.

The European Space Agency has selected three science missions, Euclid, Planetary Transits and Solar Orbiter for further study for launch in 2017. Euclid would address key questions relevant to fundamental physics and cosmology, namely the nature of the mysterious dark energy and dark matter. Astronomers are now convinced that these substances dominate ordinary matter. Euclid would map the distribution of galaxies to reveal the underlying 'dark' architecture of the Universe. The PLATO mission would address one of the most timely and long-standing questions in science, namely the frequency of planets around other stars. This would include terrestrial planets in a star's habitable zone, so-called Earth-analogues. In addition, PLATO would probe stellar interiors by detecting the gaseous waves rippling their surfaces. Solar Orbiter would take the closest look at our Sun yet possible, approaching to just 62 solar radii. It would deliver images and data that include views of the Sun's polar regions and the solar far side when it is not visible from Earth. In addition, the SPC has decided to consider at its next meeting in June, whether to also select a European contribution to the SPICA mission. SPICA would be an infrared space telescope led by the Japanese Space Agency JAXA. It would provide 'missing-link' infrared coverage in the region of the spectrum between that seen by the ESA-NASA Webb telescope and the ground-based ALMA telescope. SPICA would focus on the conditions for planet formation and distant young galaxies.

William E. Gordon, founder of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, died on February 16 aged 92.

The planned Constellation Orion 400,000 pounds thrust escape rocket now cancelled, might be used by Orbital Sciences Corporation for a Launch Abort System for other manned programme. The needle-shaped escape rocket is due for a crucial ground test called Pad Abort 1 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in April ror NASA after one minute of flight. NASA is planning to turn over responsibility for human spaceflight to commercial transportation services. Leading contenders for the new role in space operations include major contractors like Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. Orbital and Space Exploration Technologies Corporation or SpaceX, are also vying for the space transport job. Orbital and SpaceX are developing new rockets and space cargo freighters to carry equipment to the International Space Station on operational flights beginning in 2011. SpaceX is currently targeting its first demonstration flight to the space station in July. Orbital's first mission of its Taurus 2 rocket and Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled for March 2011. Thales Alenia Space of Italy has already started constructing Cygnus pressurized cargo modules. Orbital will start manufacturing Cygnus service modules this year. The Taurus 2 first stage is powered by two AJ26 engines provided by Aerojet. The AJ26 engines are based on the NK-33 power plant developed by Russia in the 1960s for the ill-fated N-1 moon rocket.

The US GAO is to review the four key issues facing NASA: retiring the space shuttle; 2) utilizing and sustaining the International Space Station; 3) continuing difficulty developing large-scale systems, including the next generation of human spaceflight systems; and 4) continuing weaknesses in financial management and information technology systems.

Orbital Sciences Corporation reported a profit in the fourth quarter of below 2008 numbers. Orbital announced Thursday net income of $9.3 million on $282.3 million in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to $9.0 million on $305.2 million for the same quarter of 2008. For 2009, Orbital netted income of $36.6 million on revenues of $1.125 billion, compared to net income of $58.5 million on revenues of $1.169 billion in 2008. Decreases in satellite revenue were largely offset by increases in advanced space systems work. Looking forward the company is still expecting 2010 revenues of about $1.2 billion.

Eutelsat is switching the launch of the Chine Great Wall Industry Long March 3B to an Ariane 5 for the Thales Alenia-built W3B in September 2010. W3B was built to replace W2 but an older satellite's failure forced Eutelsat to gather three different craft to cover for the loss in communications service at the growing 16 degrees east longitude position in GEO. The satellite is based on Spacebus 4000C3 platform.

The third and final EVA of the Endeavour STS 130 mission lasting 5hr 48min made by Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick was made with the help of the internal crew, completed the establishment of the Tranquillity cupola with an incredible view. The spacewalk was the 140th EVA at the ISS devoted to station assembly an maintenance since construction began in 1998.  Total station EVA time now stands at 873 hours and 16 minutes and a total of 18 hours 14 minutes for the mission. The mission ended on 21 February at the KSC  after a 13 day 18 hour six minutes. The ISS is now more than 98 % complete with the addition of the Tranquility habitation module and a seven-window cupola observation deck. The station's total pressurized volume is now 28,947 cubic feet - roughly the same as a 747 jumbo jet - and a habitable volume of 12,420 cubic feet. Total mass now stands at a bit more than 799,000 pounds. On March 18, the Russian Soyuz TMA-16 capsule is scheduled to undock from the station, bringing Expedition 22 commander Jeffrey Williams and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev back to Earth after six months in orbit. Another Soyuz, TMA-18, is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 2 to carry three fresh crew members to the outpost: Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell.

US President Barack Obama told astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) that he was deeply committed to space exploration - after scrapping plans to return Americans to the moon". My commitment to NASA is unwavering," Obama said. NASA will be encouraged to develop operations with commercial partners to fly astronauts to the ISS low Earth orbit.


NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has returned images of the comet Siding Spring as it heads out into the outer solar system. "WISE has worked superbly," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate. "These first images are proving the spacecraft's secondary mission of helping to track asteroids, comets and other stellar objects will be just as critically important as its primary mission of surveying the entire sky in infrared." Scientists believe WISE will discover dozens of previously unseen comets and up to 100,000 new asteroids, including bodies that bear watching because they occasionally swing close to Earth. WISE has already taken more than 250,000 pictures since Jan. 14, and the telescope will continue capturing a new image every 11 seconds through at least October.


40 years ago

19 February 1970
The Soviet Union launched a Soyuz booster from Plesetsk carrying Molniya 1-13 into a standard 286-39,179 mile elliptical, 65deg inclination orbit.

The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena A booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, carrying a KH-1 recoverable film capsule but the mission failed. 
 

17 February (17 February 2010)

The third and final EVA lasting about six hours by STS 130 spacewalkers, Bob Behnken and Nick Patrick on 17 February removed the blanket insulation from the new Tranquillity Cupola windows. The Cupola will be moved to the Earth facing port and Pressurized Mating Adaptor moving the port side of Tranquillity.

The Mars Express orbiter has started a series of fly-bys of the moon, Phobos ending with a 50km fly-by.

The final concrete construction phase of the runway of Spaceport America in New Mexico has been completed.

Russia’s Glonass Global Navigation System could be commercialised and six more satellites are planned in two launched later this year. Russia currently has a total of 22 Glonass satellites in orbit, but only 16 of them are operational. The system requires 18 operational satellites for continuous navigation services covering the entire territory of Russia and at least 24 satellites to provide navigation services worldwide. The Glonass navigation satellite system is expected to start operating worldwide by the end of 2010.

Twenty years ago on February 14, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft had sailed beyond the outermost planet in our solar system and turned its camera inward to snap a series of final images that would be its parting valentine to the string of planets it called home. Mercury was too close to the sun to see, Mars showed only a thin crescent of sunlight, and Pluto was too dim, but Voyager was able to capture cameos of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and Venus from its unique vantage point. The two Voyagers are still transmitting data daily back to Earth. Voyager 1 is now nearly 17 billion kilometers (more than 10 billion miles) away from the sun.


 

16 February (16 February 2010)

The STS 130 Endeavour crew moved the multi-window cupola to the new Tranquility module’s Earth facing port where the observation deck will provide bay window views for robot arm operators.

The first launch of a rocket from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks in 2010 has completed featuring a two-stage Terrier Orion rocket carrying 16 vials of trimethyl aluminia was fired into the upper atmosphere.

The United Launch Alliance might produce a medium booster to replace the venerable Delta 2 rocket to complement the heavy Atlas 5 and Delta 4 boosters .The original Delta will be retired in late 2011 and an intermediate rocket will be needed for missions between 2011-2014. Those vehicles might be the Space-X and Orbital Sciences companies which will be used for cargo missions to the International Space Station. Commercial Soyuz rockets launching from the European spaceport in French Guiana will also be contending for commercial satellite operators in the medium-lift market. There are still five Delta 2 rockets available for purchase to meet any short-term demands, so ULA has time to wait and see how the market evolves before making any decisions on a new system.
 

50 years ago

15 February 1960
A US Air Force performed a static firing of an Atlas Able booster from Pad 13 at Cape Canaveral in preparing for static firing test of the Pioneer P31 on a planned mission to explore the moon during a fly-by but the launcher exploded during the firing.

The first colour photos of the Earth from high altitude were recovered from a data capsule launched aboard a Thor rocket launched on 1 December 1959.
 

12-15 February (15 February 2010)

International Launch Services (ILS) launched a Proton Breeze-M from Baikonur on 11 February carrying the Intelsat 16 communications satellite built by Orbital Sciences Corporation which will be located at 58degW in GEO orbit, equipped with Ku-band transponders.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory aboard an Atlas V booster from Cape Canaveral on 13 February heading for an eventual 22,300 mile GEO orbit. The satellite is expected to reveal the sun's inner workings by constantly taking high- resolution images of the sun, collecting readings from inside the sun and measuring its magnetic field activity. This data is expected to give researchers the insight they need to eventually predict solar storms and other activity on the sun that can affect spacecraft in orbit, astronauts on the International Space Station and electronic and other systems on Earth.

STS 130 Endeavour spacewalkers Bob Behnken and Nicholas Patrick made the first of three EVAs of the mission on 11 February fixing the Node 3-Tranquillty module from Endeavour. A second EVA by the two astronauts was completed on 14 February, lasting 5hr 54min to connect ammonia coolant hoses for the Tranquillity. The 130 mission has been extended by one day to 21 February.
NASA has provided $20 million to Sierra Nevada Corporation to help the Dream Chaser to carry passengers and cargo to the International Space Station in a first for NASA to work with a commercial enterprise.

A probable Russian NAVY satellite, Cosmos 2421 launched in June 2006 has broken into 15 pieces over Mexico. 
 
Iran is to develop three new satellites including a reconnaissance spacecraft and a possible future ASAT. If Iran is able to develop nuclear warheads, it could simultaneously threaten U.S. space policy and many U.S. military spacecraft by having even a single nuclear ASAT ready to ruin any unhardened U.S. spacecraft. Iran’s first launch of a new 290,000lb thrust rocket called in planned in this month or March. Iran launched a satellite in February 2009. The Iranian Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer) sounding rocket flight was fired straight up on a battlefield artillery rocket developed decades ago. The Iranian rocket reached 125 mi. altitude, providing the animals with several minutes of zero-g as the vehicle arched over at apogee. It then descended and landed by parachute a few miles from its launch point.

International Launch Services first launch next year will feature Proton-M  carrying the SES-3 satellite Europe’s SES and the Kazsat-2 satellite for Kazakhstan. The launch will be the first time ILS has launched two satellites on a single Proton, although a non-commercial Proton last year launched two Express communications satellites for Russian operator RSCC. ILS has been studying for some time the ability to do dual launches of small Orbital-built communications satellites, although for this deal only SES-3 is built by Orbital; Kazsat-2 is built by Khrunichev, who also manufactures the Proton.

 

11 February (11 February 2010)

International Launch Services will launch the Orbital Sciences Corporation-built Luxembourg SES 3 and the Kazsat 2 communication satellites aboard an ILS Proton booster from Baikonur in 2011. 

With the Space Shuttle facing its end in 2011, the former Soviet Union is considering to revive the space shuttle Buran which was mothballed 20 years ago after one mission on 15 November 1988. Magomet Talboev was one of the pilots who test-flew the shuttle without going into orbit. He said the Soviet authorities had high hopes for the multi-billion dollar spacecraft. “The Energia-Buran programme was started to get the capability to attack the United States, just like the shuttle was able to attack the USSR. We also wanted to take the Skylab space station from orbit. Buran was supposed to put it in its cargo bay and deliver it back to Earth for studies.” 

The ill-designed Orion - which was basically another Apollo space failed its first drop test on 11 February when the parachute failed. That just about sums up the programme. Being reduced to a four crew vehicle, only capable of water landings, Orion was aiming for a flight in 2013 but was delayed to 2015, while The Augustine Committee gave a realistic date of 2017/18. 

The Space Shuttle Endeavour docked to the International Space Station’s Harmony module on Wednesday, carrying the Tranquillity module, the last major US component of the orbiting outpost.

40 years ago
11 February 1970

Japan launched a Lambda 4SL5 booster from Kagoshima carrying the 12kg Ohsumi 5 engineering test satellite into a 31deg inclination into a 200-1,510 miles orbit.

The US Air Force launched a Thor Burner 2 booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying a 429lb DMSP Block 5A meteorological satellite into a 98.80deg inclination.





 




 

10 February (10 February 2010)

Space Shuttle Endeavour STS 130 docked with the International Space Station on 10 February creating a mass of 764,350 lbs, including the 15 the new Tranquillity module featuring a multi-window cupola.

The Independent newspaper reports: Britain plans an expansion of the nation’s space industry six fold during 20 years worth 40 billion pounds with 100,00 new jobs by 2030, with space observatories for monitoring war zones, crop harvesting, deforestation, construction projects and policing greenhouse gas emissions. Space projects will double to 550 million pounds by 2020, moving Britain into the top ten space funding nations of the world. The private space sector is a rare success story of British industry, growing at a steady 9% a year since 1999. It now contributes £6.5bn to UK GDP. Industry experts believe that with shrewd investment, Britain can grab 10% of a global market expected to be worth £400bn by 2030. The report does not recommend that Britain pays into the European Space Agency's astronaut programme, despite Tim Peake, a former army helicopter pilot, being selected as the first Briton to join ESA’s astronaut corps last year. Instead, the UK should use its backing of other space projects to argue for places on human exploration missions. Professor Mark Sims at Leicester University's Space Research Centre said government and industry funding was now critical to take the proposals forward. "If the UK doesn't exploit the space market someone else will and we will be left behind. We are in a good position because of our historical investment in space, but we are at a tipping point. We cannot live on our past glories." But Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birkbeck College in London, said the report was underwhelming in terms of its scientific ambitions. In 2007, 14 of the world's space agencies signed a "global exploration strategy" that coordinates robotic and potential human missions to planets in the inner solar system. "The report doesn't carry that momentum on. This was the UK's chance to push for a leading role in the strategy to explore space."Lord Drayson, the science minister, announced last year that Britain will open its own space agency in Harwell, Oxfordshire, to coordinate future space missions. The report calls on the government to fight for leadership of three upcoming European Space Agency missions as a means of gaining crucial experience in managing space projects.”

Russia will hold the monopoly of manned and unmanned flights to the International Space Station using the venerable Soyuz booster. The agreement for the use of the Soyuz will be end in 2012 and after that we can expect the at the cost “will be absolutely different then”, says Roskosmos . NASA has signed a deal worth 306 million dollars (224 million euros) with Roskomos for six rides to the ISS in 2012 and 2013, or a charge of 51 million dollars per US astronaut. The ISS was to be closed in 2015 and ditched in ocean like its predecessor the Russian Mir station but the 16 countries involved are in talks to extend the station's life to 2020. But with space now limited aboard the Soyuz rocket, Russia looks set to curb its lucrative space tourism service, for which it had charged cosmos-crazed tycoons 35 million dollars (28 million euros) for the ultimate adventure.

40 years ago
10 February 1970

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 323, a Zenit 4 recoverable reconnaissance film capsule, which returned to Earth after eight days.












 

6-9 February (9 February 2010)

Russia’s latest Progress tanker docked to the International Space Station on 8 February with the docking port on the instrumentation and propulsion compartment of the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS Russian Segment. The spacecraft delivered to the station about 2.7 tons of cargo. They include: supplies of propellants, water, food (including natural form foods), oxygen and air, medical equipment, scientific equipment and hardware of the ISS RS systems, on-board documentation, parcels for the crew, video and photographic equipment. Intended for the US segment of the station are 496 kg of cargos. The ISS Russian Segment consists of: Functional and cargo module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking compartment/module Pirs, Mini Research Module Poisk, manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-16 and Soyuz TMA-17, cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-03M and Progress M-04M. For the first time during the Space Station mission, four Russian spacecraft operate simultaneously attached to the Station. The ISS crew consists of: Russian cosmonauts Maxim Suraev and Oleg Kotov, US astronauts Jeffrey Williams (ISS commander) and Timothy Creamer, Japanese space agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi. The ISS flies in low Earth orbit with minimum altitude of 341.1 km, and maximum altitude of 356.1 km. Its orbital period is 91.3 min.

Russia, which is set to hold a monopoly on flights to the international space station (ISS), wants to charge more for rides on its Soyuz rocket, the space agency head said Tuesday. "At a meeting of the space agency chiefs in Tokyo, I want to discuss the maintenance of transport to the station,"says Roskomos head Anatoly Perminov. “We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this. But after that?” Excuse me but the prices should be absolutely different then!" When NASA retires its long-serving shuttle fleet as planned later this year, the United States and other countries will be wholly dependent on Russia to fly the station's six-man crew to and from orbit. NASA has signed a deal worth 306 million dollars (224 million euros) with Roskomos for six rides to the ISS in 2012 and 2013, or a charge of 51 million dollars per US astronaut. But with space now limited aboard the Soyuz rocket, Russia looks set to curb its lucrative space tourism service, for which it had charged cosmos-crazed tycoons 35 million dollars (28 million euros) for the ultimate adventure. The floating ISS research station was to be closed in 2015 and ditched in ocean like its predecessor the Russian Mir station, but the 16 countries involved are in talks to extend the station's life to 2020.

NASA has signed a deal worth 306 million dollars (224 million euros) with Roskomos for six rides to the ISS in 2012 and 2013, or a charge of 51 million dollars per US astronaut. But with space now limited aboard the Soyuz rocket, Russia looks set to curb its lucrative space tourism service, for which it had charged cosmos-crazed tycoons 35 million dollars (28 million euros) for the ultimate adventure. The floating ISS research station was to be closed in 2015 and ditched in ocean like its predecessor the Russian Mir station, but the 16 countries involved are in talks to extend the station's life to 2020.

NASA chief former Space Shuttle pilot and commander, Charles Bolden says potential operators of commercial space spacecraft to use processing and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral. Bolden says that the commercial industry can come here to the Space Coast, at least see what we have to offer, and then work with us to find ways that we can modify it to your needs so that you can use what's here."KSC director Robert Cabana said NASA will upgrade existing infrastructure at the spaceport over the next few years, in hopes a private company will rent the facilities for new rockets and spacecraft for human space transportation. Kennedy Space Center's two launch pads, the 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building, space shuttle hangars and payload processing bays will all soon be vacant. The Constellation moon program was designed to use many of the facilities, but NASA is scrapping those plans under the White House's budget proposal unveiled last week. According to Bolden, it makes sense to move commercial operations to the government-run space centre. There will be some requirements for new construction, but I'd like to utilize the facilities that we have here," Bolden said. The VAB is large enough to process several different launch systems, according to NASA officials. Bolden said the agency could "modularize" the VAB to support different types of rockets. Under President Obama's 2011 budget request, NASA would receive nearly $2 billion over the next five years to modernize buildings, equipment and technologies at KSC.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, is basing their Falcon 9 rocket from Complex 40 at the Air Force station adjacent to KSC. United Launch Alliance, which operates the Atlas and Delta rocket fleet, has two launch pads in Florida. The location of human launches would be up to the winners of the commercial crew competition. Bolden also said some technologies from the cancelled Constellation program may survive in future space exploration architectures. Although the Ares 1 crew launcher is being shelved in favour of procuring commercial human-rated spacecraft, other systems being designed under the Constellation umbrella could be used in the future, whenever NASA decides to develop a heavy-lift rocket or begin exploring beyond low Earth orbit.

Gene Cernan: "I'm angry. It's very short sighted on the part of this administration," said Cernan. "He is somehow unwilling to invest in the future of this country and the future of this country is important to me. I won't be here 20, 30, 40 years from now, but my grandkids will. I want them to have the country I had. I want something better for them." Leroy Chiao: Many of my colleagues and peers have written articles and pieces, deriding the idea of commercial LEO access. Indeed, the track record of the self-described "New Space" companies has thus far, been marked generally with failure and arrogance. Not all, but many of these folks, before they run their companies into the ground, seem to spend the bulk of their time attending self-serving, self-aggrandizing conferences where openly slinging mud at NASA is sport. This is hardly constructive, and it brings discredit to others who have serious aspirations for the future of commercial spaceflight." Many of my colleagues and peers have written articles and pieces, deriding the idea of commercial LEO access. Indeed, the track record of the self-described "New Space" companies has thus far, been marked generally with failure and arrogance. Not all, but many of these folks, before they run their companies into the ground, seem to spend the bulk of their time attending self-serving, self-aggrandizing conferences where openly slinging mud at NASA is sport. This is hardly constructive, and it brings discredit to others who have serious aspirations for the future of commercial spaceflight." Tom Jones: "The new budget, announced Monday, seems merely an attempt to disguise the demise of U.S. leadership in space. The president does away with Constellation, its Orion spacecraft, and its Ares I and Ares V boosters. The abrupt cancellation means the U.S. no longer wishes to send its explorers to the frontiers of knowledge and spacefaring skill. We are deliberately choosing to have no better space capability than do Russia, China, or India." "The new budget, announced Monday, seems merely an attempt to disguise the demise of U.S. leadership in space. The president does away with Constellation, its Orion spacecraft, and its Ares I and Ares V boosters. The abrupt cancellation means the U.S. no longer wishes to send its explorers to the frontiers of knowledge and spacefaring skill. We are deliberately choosing to have no better space capability than do Russia, China, or India." “Ken Bowersox, is more bullish on the commercial prospects - perhaps in part because he's now an executive at one of those companies, California-based SpaceX. Today Discovery News quoted him as saying that space contractors "should be able to come up with new and innovative ways" to fill NASA's needs for resupplying the International Space Station."The 2,000 jobs the administration expects private companies to create in Florida under the plan is far less than the 12,000 NASA and private jobs that Florida's east coast expects to lose when the shuttle is retired." "Most importantly, this achievement of the International Space Station proves, definitively, the existence of the worlds' potential for cooperation. Nations can peacefully work together towards a common goal--not unlike, say, Obama's goal of eradicating nuclear weapons. If NASA were to go commercial, as Obama hopes, the country would lose its ownership, and cooperation between multinationals--only concerned with their bottom lines and profits--wouldn't be nearly as idealistic as the cooperation between nations we have now." Air&Space: "I have previously discussed what I perceive as the most significant problem with FP, namely, that it is activity without direction. The administration's budgetary version of this path confirms this perception. Much verbiage is thrown around about multiple missions to all sorts of destinations, blazing new trails with new technology, trips to Mars that last weeks instead of months, and "people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the Moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of firsts." But nowhere in the budget documents or agency statements is there anything about the mission that we are undertaking. So we're going to an asteroid. What will we do there? Why are we going there? What benefit accrues from it?" St. Petersbrug Times: The 2,000 jobs the administration expects private companies to create in Florida under the plan is far less than the 12,000 NASA and private jobs that Florida's east coast expects to lose when the shuttle is retired." Rep. Pete Olson: "The administration would like to foster commercial providers with our human space flight capabilities. Commercial participation is a good thing, and something that everyone agrees with, but it's simply not ready to take humans into space safely, and should not be the sole means for our country's access to space." The Economist: "Much has been made of the fact that NASA will, as a consequence of Constellation's cancellation, have to rely on private firms to send its astronauts to the international space station once the space shuttle is withdrawn. In many ways, though, this is the least interesting aspect of what is happening, for what Mr Obama proposed is actually a radical overhaul of the agency." Financial Times: "That is what makes the debate over Constellation symbolic. The decision to abandon moon exploration has "decline" written all over it. Americans often profess astonishment that the Chinese of 600 years ago failed to take full advantage of their technological superiority. They invented gunpowder and, on the eve of Columbus's discovery of America, their ocean-going vessels were bigger and more seaworthy than Europe's." WS Journal: "NASA's proposed budget "essentially decimates America's human space-flight capacity," said Democratic Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland Rep, Ralph Hall of Texas, the ranking Republican on the full Science and Technology Committee, said "it is naive to assume that a do-over will somehow deliver a safer, cheaper system faster than the current path we are on." The reaction portends an uphill fight for the Obama Administration, partly due to sentiment on Capitol Hill that it failed to consult members before unveiling such a dramatic shift in direction In an interview Tuesday, NASA's Administrator, Charles Bolden, accepted part of the blame. "I could have done a better job of communicating" with Congress, he said. "I will take the hit for that." OPM: The Federal Government will be open in the morning operating under an unscheduled leave policy with a planned four hour early dismissal. Employees reporting for work should be dismissed by their agencies four hours earlier than their normal departure time from work. OPM is continuing to closely monitor developing weather conditions should there be a need to reassess the Government's operating status."Farewell Full Cost Accounting? The Agency will be going to a single unified CS labour account in FY11. In a letter from Administrator Bolden on Monday, he assured the Union that: "Going forward, it is also NASA's intention to work with the Congress to implement a unified labour account for FY 2011.   NASA remains committed to full-cost workforce planning, to including labour estimates in our project baseline, and to complete transparency in workforce utilization at HQ and the Centres. However, we think it very valuable to unify labor into a single account for budget purposes."(Bolden). "The potentially seismic shift for the aerospace industry was announced Monday, the seventh anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, and came as defense companies were bracing for a pullback in the Pentagon's spending on weapons." "Giving up on manned space flight doesn't mean we have to give up on the exploration of the solar system. The president's budget calls for spending $19 billion on NASA, and for much less than the cost of sending a few astronauts once to a single location on Mars we could send hundreds of robots like Spirit and Opportunity to sites all over the planet." The right way forward on space exploration, OpEd, James Cameron, Washington Post"... the president and NASA have crafted a bold plan that truly makes possible this nation's dreams for space. Their plan calls for the full embrace of commercial solutions for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit after the space shuttle is retired this year. This frees NASA to do what it does best: deep space exploration, both robotic and human. By selecting commercial solutions for transportation to the international space station, NASA is empowering American free enterprise to do what it does best: develop technology quickly and efficiently in a competitive environment." Buzz Aldrin: Thanks President Obama.

"President Obama's JFK Moment. Thank you, Mr. President! What should we say to President Barack Obama in light of his Fiscal Year 2011 space budget for NASA? The President courageously decided to redirect our nation's space policy away from the foolish and underfunded Moon race that has consumed NASA for more than six years, aiming instead at boosting the agency's budget by more than $1 billion more per year over the next five years, topping off at $100 billion for NASA between now and 2015."

The final night launch of a Space Shuttle was made on 8 February, featuring the Endeavour STS 130 with a crew led by George Zamka, with pilot Terry Virts, mission specialists Kathy Hire, Stephen Robinson and EVA spacewalkers Robert Behnken and Nicholas Patrick. The primary goal of the mission is to deliver and install the International Space Station Tranquility module and a seven-pane cupola that promises spectacular bay-window views of Earth and approaching spacecraft. The astronauts also will deliver replacement hardware to overhaul the lab's water recycling system, the complex equipment that turns sweat and urine into ultra-pure water for drinking, crew hygiene and oxygen generation. The system has been out of action in recent weeks because of higher-than-expected calcium concentrations in a critical distillation assembly. Another major addition is the Tranquillity multi-window cupola to improve the quality of life aboard the station. Full-time crew members now have sleep stations and internet access. With Endeavour's mission, they will get a bay window on the world built by Thales Alenia Space. This mission represents the end of US segment assembly.

40 years ago
6 February 1970

The Soviet Union launched a Proton booster carrying a Luna soil return mission. The 12,300lb spacecraft was lost due to a failure.
 

3-5 February (5 February 2010)

Russia launched a Soyuz booster from Baikonur on 2 February carrying Progress 36 (M-04M) carrying 2,683lbs of cargo to the International Space Station, together with 1,940 pounds propellant for the Russian segment and 926lbs of water and 106lbs of oxygen and air.

Iran launched a Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer 3) rocket carrying a rodent, called Helmz 1, two turtles and some worms into space on 3 February.

As NASA begins plans to rely on commercial providers to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, it has awarded  $50 million to five companies to help develop systems needed for such services. The five companies, Blue Origin, Boeing, Paragon Space Development Corporation, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and United Launch Alliance, received awards ranging from $1.4 to $20 million as part of NASA's Commercial Crew development (CCDev) programme. NASA's FY11 budget proposal plans to spend $6 billion over five years for the development of commercial crew transportation services.

United Launch Alliance has been awarded a $6.7 million to develop an Emergency Detection System (EDS), which is the final significant element necessary for a safe and highly reliable human rated launch vehicle using Atlas and Delta boosters. ULA studies show that the EDS development is the final technical risk to address prior to the launch of humans on its Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. ULA will work closely with NASA to identify critical failure modes of the flight-proven Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. ULA will then develop the hardware components and software processes that will detect these modes allowing for rigorous and exhaustive testing on a prototype EDS before the first crewed flight.

The White House will end a civil-military weather satellite program to pursue two separate lines of polar-orbiting satellites to serve military and civilian users. Terminating the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) is bad news for prime contractor Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems of Los Angeles, which was to supply the satellite platforms and integrate the overall system. NPOESS program will now use a different satellite platform.  NOAA’s new satellite programme, Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), will be managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. NOAA plans to begin procurement of the first JPSS spacecraft this year, with a notional launch date of 2015. The Air Force has not yet devised plans for its future weather satellites as its current-generation spacecraft will not require replacing until later this decade. The service has two Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft scheduled to launch in 2012 and 2014.   
 
Thales Alenia Space has been awarded the contract to provide ESA Galileo system Support Services, lasting from 2010 through 2016.   Valued at approximately euros 85 million, it will cover the period 2010 through 2014. The project has been delayed by more than a decade, but reports now indicate Galileo will be developed to become operational in early 2014.

After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform. after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.

Russia intends to keep up with the U.S. in the space race and launch a new manned spacecraft by 2017 and plans to enter the market in 2015 with an unmanned spacecraft and are likely to launch it from the new Vostochny space center. In 2017, a piloted spacecraft should also be developed. Russia will start building its new space centre at Vostochny, in the Far East in 2011 and should complete it in 2018.   

The Intelsat 4 satellite (IS-4), at 72 degrees E , experienced an anomaly on February .Intelsat is working with affected customers to identify restoration capacity. Intelsat and Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, the manufacturer of the IS-4, are working together to identify the cause of the anomaly.  Launched in 1995, the Boeing 601 satellite was expected to reach its end-of-service life later in 2010.  Intelsat previously disclosed that the IS-4 had experienced the failure of its satellite control processor (SCP) and was operating on its backup SCP. Intelsat’s global fleet includes a number of other satellites that serve the regions formerly served by IS-4. 

Europe will build the next Jason altimeter spacecraft to monitor the behaviour of the world's oceans. Jason-3 should launch in 2013, allowing time to cross-check its data in orbit with the current Jason-2 observatory. Britain has  a full commitment to the programme over nine years of 10.3m euros (£9m). The UK contribution is vital to the future of the Jason series and the crucial data it provides on sea-surface height across the globe, and we are committed to the Jason-3 satellite," said Science Minister Lord Drayson.

The selected teams for the planned new NASA manned spacecraft: Blue Origin will receive $3.7 million, The Boeing Company will receive $18 million, Paragon Space Development Corporation will receive $1.4 million, Sierra Nevada Corporation will receive $20 million, United Launch Alliance will receive $6.7 million.

President Barack Obama Monday ditched US plans to return to the moon and hitched NASA's future to private industry in a budget calling for the space agency to stay close to Earth and do research. In budget proposals for NASA, Obama pledged to increase funding for the space agency by six billion dollars over five years. In its place, "a bold and ambitious new space initiative that invests in American ingenuity to propel us on a new journey of innovation and discovery" was being launched. "With this budget and the steps it lays out, the United States and its partners in other nations, in industry, and in academia will pursue a more sustainable and affordable approach to spaceflight through the development of transformative technologies and systems," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden told a news conference. "We will blaze a new trail of discovery and development. We will facilitate the growth of new commercial industries. And we will expand our understanding of the Earth, our solar system, and the universe beyond." Private industry will take on the role of building the space vehicles that take humans to the International Space Station (ISS) while NASA concentrates on research and development -- a proposal that raised safety concerns among some. Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon in 1969, said where Constellation was stuck in the past, Obama's plan was forward-looking."We've already been to the Moon -- some 40 years ago," Aldrin said in a statement. "A near-term focus on lowering the cost of access to space and on developing key, cutting-edge technologies to take us further, faster, is just what our nation needs to maintain its position as the leader in space exploration."

India is building a spacecraft for mobile applications that will enable use of satellite phones without dependence on foreign players, a top space scientist said. Currently, satellite phones used in India are supported by foreign satellites, including Indonesian ones. "We are yet to make an impact on satellite-based mobile communication. But again there are plans to evolve such systems," former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said. "Designs are evolved. They (ISRO) are in the process of building the satellite," he told reporters after addressing the India Semiconductor Association's vision summit.

NASA’s latest $5 billion budget for science has a 11% increase including money for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory lost in a launch failure in 2009. A new craft will be replaced in the 2011 budget. The Earth science budget is $1.8m, an increase of $382 million.  A replacement for OCO will be launched in 2013.

The White House is proposing major changes of the U.S. government's troubled next-generation weather satellites, cutting the NPOESS program in half and directing NOAA and the Air Force to continue developing their own weather observatories.The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System is managed by NOAA, the Air Force and NASA, aiming to combine military and civilian weather satellite fleets to streamline costs and improve service. But projected costs of the NPOESS program have more than doubled to $13.9 billion and the launch of the first satellite has slipped five years to 2014."Today the White House is announcing that NOAA and the Air Force would no longer continue to jointly procure the polar-orbiting satellite system called NPOESS," the Office of Science and Technology Policy's budget summary stated. The agencies will still share coverage responsibilities, but NOAA and the Air Force will pursue their own procurements for satellites. "NOAA and the Air Force have already begun to move into a transition period during which the current joint procurement will end," science officials wrote in a statement.

NASA and the Department of Energy restart production of plutonium-238 for a mission to fly to the Saturnian moon, Europa in 2020. NASA is also developing an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator, a more efficient power system that would reduce consumption of precious plutonium. Under the proposed 2011 budget, the ASRG would be ready for a flight test on a Discovery-class space science mission by 2014 or 2015. Other science highlights includes the Solar Probe Plus mission that will fly in the sun's corona after launching in 2015. The joint Mars Trace Gas Orbiter between NASA and the European Space Agency will also move into the mission formulation phase, according to Weiler. The probe will launch in 2016. The Cassini spacecraft will continue its studies of Saturn and its moons through 2017 under a mission extension NASA announced Wednesday. Cassini, launched in 1997, has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004 and already received one extension after the end of its four-year primary mission. The "Cassini Solstice Mission" will allow the spacecraft to study the planet to the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The mission plan also includes 54 flybys of Titan, the planet's largest moon, and 11 of the icy moon Enceladus. The mission extension will end with the spacecraft plunging into Saturn itself to avoid the potential of colliding with and contaminating Enceladus, which may have liquid water oceans beneath its surface.

50 years ago

4 February 1960
The US Air Force launched a Thor Agena A booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying the 1,668lb Discoverer 9 low resolution photo surveillance with a recoverable capsule but the mission failed.


40 years ago

4 February 1970
The US Air Force launched a Thorad Delta Agena D from Vandenberg AFB carrying the 3,095lb SERT 2 space electric  rocket test using ion engines which operated until 1981 in a 99.20deg inclination orbit.
 

27 January-2 February (2 February 2010)

The White House has all but killed off manned spaceflight to the moon, with the death of the Constellation programme and its Ares rocket and the Orion manned spacecraft, which was planned to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. The International Space Station will continue while five more Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station (ISS) starting with the Endeavour on 7 February. Then astronauts will be flown only on Russia Soyuz spacecraft. US unmanned commercial transporters will be used to carry cargo to the ISS by 2015, while possible manned commercial spacecraft may be operational later after 2020, partly funded by NASA. There is a possibility that NASA will be able to fund new heavy-lift rocket to fly astronauts beyond Earth orbit, including flights to lunar orbit and possibly asteroids or the two Mars moons. The latter missions are very unlikely in this fiscal climate. If these programmes do not appear, it will mark the end of the “space age” as we have known. Watch out for lots of Russian propaganda - and China and India taking a bigger role. NASA - RIP.

SpaceX, has won a contract to launch an Israeli communications satellite. SpaceX signed an agreement with Israeli satellite operator Spacecom for the launch of an unnamed communications satellite on a Falcon 9 no sooner than the end of 2012. Spacecom, which operates the Amos satellite fleet, is planning to launch at least four satellites in the “foreseeable future”. SpaceX’s manifest is dominated by   cargo to unmanned service missions the International Space Station. 

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch two astronauts into orbit for seven days at a cost of $4.8 billion programme in 2016. An Indian astronaut, Rakesh Sharma flew aboard a Soviet Union Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Also, India plans to send a second moon orbiter in 2012. Meanwhile, trouble with a new cryogenic engine is delaying India's plans to debut an updated all-Indian version of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, the most powerful rocket in the country's inventory. India is also developing a heavy-lift model of the rocket called the GSLV Mk.III, which would consist of two massive solid rocket boosters, a restartable second stage and a more efficient third stage. Indian engineers successfully tested the three-segment solid rocket booster. The 72-foot-long booster, which produces up to 1.1 million pounds of thrust, is the third most powerful solid-fueled motor in the world, after the boosters used on the space shuttle and the Ariane 5 launcher.

Russia launched a Proton M booster from Baikonur on 28 January carrying a Raduga communications satellite into a geosynchronous orbit on the first Russian launch of 2010.

Thales Alenia Space has been awarded the contract to provide ESA Galileo system Support Services, lasting from 2010 through 2016. There was strong competition for this service, which was signed at the ESTEC headquarters of the European Space Agency. Valued at approximately euros 85 million, it will cover the period 2010 through 2014. The project has been delayed by more than a decade, but reports now indicate Galileo will be developed to become operational in early 2014.

After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.

Russia intends to keep up with the U.S. in the space race and launch a new manned spacecraft by 2017, a senior Russian space official said on Tuesday. "We plan to enter the market in 2015 with an unmanned spacecraft and are likely to launch it from the new Vostochny space center. In 2017, a piloted spacecraft should also be developed," Vitaly Lopota, the head of Russia's Energia space corporation, said. He also described the modern space market as "tough and pragmatic," and said the United States was planning to orbit a new manned spacecraft no earlier than 2017. Russia will start building its new space center, Vostochny, in the country's Far East in 2011 and should complete it in 2018. It currently uses the Baikonur space center in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan, which it has leased since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia's federal space agency announced in October it had started designing a new carrier rocket to orbit manned flights from Vostochny.