Tim's Space Diary. Straight and to the point

20 March (30 March 2010)

The Teal Group says that 2,229 space payloads will be launched into Earth orbit and in to the moon and into the solar system from 2010-2029 - 10% more than the previous report. “Civil and commercial payloads account nearly equally for 77 percent of the total payloads in the Mission Model, while military and university payloads account for 19 percent and 4 percent respectively. Approximately one-quarter of the civil payloads are crew transfer and resupply capsules for the International Space Station (ISS) missions. Additional ISS resupply capsules are included among commercial payloads, as companies like Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital Sciences move to establish a presence in this market with their Dragon and Cygnus capsules, "particularly now with the Obama administration's cancellation of the Constellation program to develop a follow-on to the Space Shuttle and allow industry to pioneer the commercialization of human spaceflight," noted Caceres. Sixty-two percent of the payloads in the Model are destined for low earth orbit (LEO) and 23 percent for geostationary orbit (GEO), with the remainder designated for medium earth orbit (MEO), elliptical orbit, or deep space trajectories. The high volume of LEO payloads can be attributed to a mix of ISS missions, nanosatellites and picosatellites, and replenishment satellites for mobile communications constellations such as Globalstar, Iridium, and Orbcomm.”

The Indian Space Research Organisation reports that a winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Demonstrator (RLV-TD) will be a precursor of Two-Stage-To-Orbit reusable launch vehicle. The RLV-TD will act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies like hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air- breathing propulsion. First in the series of demonstration trials is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX). Also 36 Indian proposals for a lunar orbiter and lander rover. The Megha-Tropiques satellite, an Indo-French joint mission for the study of the tropical atmosphere and climate related aspects is expected to be launched later this year.

In an attempt to streamline procedures and relieve busy manifests, Atlas V and Delta IV rocket missions could be transferred from Cape Canaveral to Vandenberg AFB, California for launch. Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets cost between $120 million and $165 million per mission well below the $500 million the Air Force pays for each Titan IV and Atlas 5 rocket launch.

The Integrated Programme Office has temporarily stopped NOAA and the Air Force reviews of their future, says Northrop Grumman. NOAA, NASA and the Air Force jointly manage the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), which has been cancelled by the White House. NPOESS satellites would not be ready until 2014 at the earliest and the projected cost of the NPOESS programme has more than doubled to $13.9 billion. The Air Force has two more DMSP satellites scheduled for launch in 2012 and 2014.

More than 80% of the space market is controlled by the United States, says Russia. It has unquestionable supremacy in space. Russia only has 0.5% of the market,but when the Vostochny space centre is built, we would like to have at least 10% of the market. That's in the region of $30 billion, which is realistic," said a spokesman. Russia will spend around $14 billion building the Vostochny space center in the Far Eastern Amur Region “and will employ 20,000-25,000 people ensuring Russia's independence in the launch of piloted space vehicles, currently carried out at Baikonur. The first launch from the new centre is scheduled for 2015 and the first piloted spacecraft are intended to blast off in 2018”.

A U.S. hedge fund that has invested in three mobile satellite services providers and is acquiring full control of one of them is guaranteeing to U.S. regulators that it will spend several billion dollars, starting immediately, to deploy a nationwide mobile-broadband network that will reach “at least 260 million people” by early 2016. Harbinger Capital Partners, whose purchase of mobile satellite services provider SkyTerra was approved March 26 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), agreed as a condition of the deal to an aggressive roll-out of services using ground-based signal boosters employing the same L-band radio spectrum to be used by the two SkyTerra satellites planned for launch in the next 12 months. “Excluding satellite coverage, Harbinger has committed to a build-out schedule of its 4G terrestrial network that will provide coverage in the United State to at least 100 million people by Dec. 30, 2012, at least 145 million people by Dec. 31, 2013, and at least 260 million people by Dec. 31, 2015,” the FCC said in its March 26 approval Harbinger’s takeover of SkyTerra.

Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will enter the small launcher market, with services available from 2012 using a new version of the all-solid rocket motor Athena vehicle, with a payload capability of 1,712kg (3,775lb) to low Earth orbit, Two versions Athena, Ic and IIc, will compete with Orbital Sciences' Minotaur, Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 1e and European competitors, including the Russian Cosmos and Arianespace's Vega which should be commercially operational in 2011. Athena I and Athena II rockets will use new electronics and ATK's Castor 30 solid rocket motor as an upper stage. C versions will use ATK's Castor 120 motor for the first stage. The Athena I is a two-stage vehicle and the II has three stages. An Athena II launched NASA's Lunar Prospector to the Moon in 1998 and in total the two types flew seven times from 1995. The Athenas will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg AFB, California and NASA's Wallops Mid-Atlantic regional spaceport in Virginia.

Cape Breton may become a Canadian version of Florida's historic Cape Canaveral. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is looking at the Nova Scotia island as one of two possible sites to blast small satellites into orbit using an indigenous rocket launch system.The other possible micro-satellite launch site is Fort Churchill in Manitoba, near Hudson Bay, where hundreds of small research rockets have been launched in the past. Canada has a "legacy of technology" with the Black Brant, a sounding rocket developed by Winnipeg-based Bristol Aerospace and launched from Fort Churchill. CSA has launched 3,500 suborbital flights.

25-29 March (29 March 2010)

Comtech AeroAstro has been awarded a $37.9 million contract from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to build the spacecraft bus for the Joint Milli-Arcsecond Pathfinder Survey (JMAPS) to be launched in March 2012. The JMAPS mission is primarily intended to update the star position catalogue for critical national security and civil applications. The JMAPS space vehicle uses Comtech AeroAstro’s Astro 200AS bus to host the JMAPS instrument over a 3-year mission life. Evolved from spacecraft developed for the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program, STPSat-1 and STPSat-2, the Astro 200AS provides unparalleled stability and pointing accuracy for a vehicle in its size class.

It has been released that former NASA press officer John McLeash revealed that before the launch of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong gave him a document, which confirmed that Armstrong intended to say “One small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind”. It was only revealed after the death of Mr McLeaish in 2007. As we know, Armstrong actually left out the word “a” during his landing statement. Armstrong signed the note for NASA while he was in quarantine. It's set to fetch £55,000 at auction. In an interview conducted with Mr McLeaish in 2001, he spoke of how he asked Armstrong what he said and Armstrong responded, “Well I know what I was meant to say”. Armstrong then inscribed his intended phrase onto the flight plan. McLeaish wrote,"this certifies that Neil Armstrong presented this signed page to me on August 9, 1969, while in quarantine following his mission as the first man on the moon".
Arianespace scrubbed the launch of Ariane 5 V194 on 27 March - the first flight for 2010 - after a launcher subsystem fault ground the flight of Astra 3B and COMSATBw2. The booster stack has been rolled back into the assembly building for a replacement.

Arabian Aerospace will introduce space tourism flights organised by Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments and Virgin Group announced a strategic partnership last year, under the deal, Aabar will ultimately invest US$280m and is committed to funding a small satellite launch capability in the region. Once space tourism gets under way in Abu Dhabi would-be astronauts are likely to pay around $200,000 for a two and a half hour flight that will take them to 60 miles above the earth. Around 350 people worldwide have already committed around $50 million dollars to do just that, including around 20 people from the Gulf region.

Google Lunar X Prize have solved some issues in their quest to win the $20 million purse for the prestige of being the first independent team to send a rover to the moon. Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) plan to send the first non-governmental robot to the moon, entirely through private enterprise. The space robot is powered by solar panels with 120-watt hours of continuous use. The Google Lunar X Prize - introduced in 2007- stipulates that the privately funded craft must land on the moon, travel 500 meters and broadcast a high definition transmission back to Earth. The prize is $20 million. The majority of the lander will be built by Astrobotic and CMU. An outside company will provide the propulsion module. The spacecraft will ride on a Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX in late 2012 fromCape Canaveral. The payload has been increased to 240 pounds. A space burial service has reserved 11 pounds already. The remaining space is available for $700,000 a pound plus a $250,000 fee. The project will cost $60 million.

NASA managers reviewed the shuttle Discovery's flight readiness Friday and formally cleared the ship for launch April 5 on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver ammonia coolant, supplies and science gear to the International Space Station. Engineers plan to begin Discovery's countdown at 3 a.m. EDT on April 2, setting up a launch attempt at 6:21:22 a.m. Monday, April 5, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. The crew are commander Alan Poindexter, pilot James Dutton, and mission specialists, flight engineer Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki and spacewalkers Richard Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson. NASA plans to fly a final four Shuttle flights and retire the spacecraft by the end of September. However, there might be a change of plan to allow a few more
missions.

The U.S. Air Force is answering a call from Iridium to put payloads, experiments and sensors on the company's next-generation satellites. “We've looked at potential secondary hosted payloads on Iridium," said Gary Payton, undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs. Iridium is in talks with government and international agencies for hosted payloads that would use extra room, power and communications capacity on the company's NEXT constellation, which is scheduled to begin launching in 2014. Iridium is in negotiations with U.S. government agencies interested in utilizing the extra satellite space. Payton said the Air Force's best match with Iridium involves experiments from the Space Test Program, the military's acquisition service for innovative technology demonstrations in orbit. About 40 to 60 STP space experiments are planned and many of them are finished and just sitting in clean rooms waiting for a ride," Payton said. "The Iridium idea might be a good way to work off a lot of those secondary experiments from the Space Test Program (STP)". STP experiments have previously flown on dedicated small satellites as secondary payloads on military launches." A lot of these experiments really don't care what orbit they're in," Payton said. "They just want to get into space and see if their technology can or cannot work in space. The Iridium NEXT constellation will include 66 satellites flying 485 miles above Earth in near-polar orbits. The craft will be spread apart to provide global mobile voice and data communications continuity as the company's current fleet of satellites is retired. Iridium is in final negotiations with Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space for the prime contract to build the fleet. But Iridium will first have to acquire financing for the project. The development and construction contract is planned this summer. Iridium expects to finalize a list of suitable hosted payloads by the fall of 2011.

Space is rapidly becoming more bottlenecked with dead satellites, disposed rocket parts and loose debris from intentional and accidental orbital collisions. Air Force officials say it is critical to know where these objects are and what they are doing. "While there's a great volume of space there in which they can move, they're all travelling at a very high rate of speed. As space becomes more congested, it's even more important that we understand where these objects are and what they're doing," Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler heads the organization responsible for air traffic control in space. Gary Payton, undersecretary of the Air Force for Space Programs, said the best solution for the space situational awareness mission is the continued development of a potential fleet of Space Based Space Surveillance, or SBSS, satellites. The first SBSS demo mission is scheduled to launch this summer. "From what I've seen of the space situational awareness applications on Iridium, I don't think we honestly gain that much, assuming we get SBSS on-orbit successfully," Payton said. According to Campbell, no final decisions have been made on space situational awareness or any other payloads on Iridium NEXT. Other applications for the military include space weather monitoring. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is also discussing placing Earth observation and science instruments on Iridium NEXT satellites. Researchers could also use GPS radio signals between Iridium and navigation satellites in higher orbits to measure atmospheric profile data on humidity and temperatures. “Many of those sensors wouldn't take up the whole payload size, weight and power allocation. Some of them were actually very nice fits to fly multiple missions," Campbell said. "I think most likely what we'll find is we'll fly a mix of payloads, or potentially even multiple payloads on one satellite."Campbell said each satellite has about 110 pounds of mass reserved for hosted payloads. Secondary instruments would also receive about 50 watts of continuous power and a communications rate of about 1 megabyte per second."We really have done quite a bit with the government over the last couple of years to find the right mission for NEXT."

Lockheed Martin and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) will attempt to resurrect the long-dormant Athena series of small-satellite launchers under an arrangement announced by the companies Thursday. The upgraded Athena 1c and Athena 2c rockets will feature the same Castor 120 solid rocket motors as their predecessors, but use the newly developed Castor 30 motor for their upper stage, the companies said in a written announcement. The original Athena vehicles used the Orbus 21D motor built by the former Chemical Systems Division of United Technologies Corp. The new Athena vehicles will be used to launch payloads weighing up to 3,775 pounds (1,712 kg) into low Earth orbit and could be available for launches starting in 2012, ATK and Lockheed officials said in a statement. The rockets can be launched from several spaceports in the United States, including the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and the Wallops Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island in Virginia. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver developed the original Athena 1 and Athena 2 rockets in the 1990s to launch small payloads for government and commercial customers. However, the market did not materialize as expected and the company stopped offering the vehicles in the early part of the next decade. The Athena rockets flew seven times, with two failures. Among the successes was the December 1998 launch of NASA's Lunar Prospector mission aboard the three-stage Athena 2 rocket. ATK Space Systems of Magna, Utah, will be responsible for providing the motors for the upgraded Athena vehicles, along with other structures, integration and support. The solid-fueled Castor 30 was developed for Orbital Sciences Corp.'s planned Taurus 2 medium-class rocket and has been tested on the ground, the press release said. The Castor 120 has been used on Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital's Taurus 1 rocket in addition to the original Athena line. Lockheed Martin will be responsible for mission management, payload integration and launch operations of the Athena vehicles, the company said in an announcement. Athena's target market is currently served by Orbital with its Pegasus, Taurus 1 and Minotaur family of vehicles, and by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, California, with its Falcon 1E rocket."The new Athena family will fill an industry need for lift capability in this payload range," Scott Lehr, vice president and general manager of strategic and commercial systems at ATK Aerospace Systems, said in a statement.

The Russian Space Forces has warned the Mission Control Center about the hazardous proximity of space debris to the International Space Station (ISS) over 100 times in 2009, Space Forces spokesman Col. Lieut. Alexei Zolotukhin told Interfax-AVN. The Space Forces have controlled 110 space vehicles in 2009, he said. The Forces "sent over 100 warnings to the Mission Control Center on the hazardous proximity of space objects to the ISS," Zolotukhin said. Space monitoring has caused for around 700 warnings to be issued about the hazardous proximity of space debris to the ISS since the Space Forces were formed in 2001.

40 years ago

27 March 1970
The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk, carrying Cosmos 328 Zenit 4M reconnaissance satellite with a returned film capsule after 13 days.

18-24 March (25 March 2010)

International Launch Services will launch a Proton for Telesat carrying Nimiq 6 in 2012. The 1300 platform Ku-band satellite will be equipped with 32 transponders and will be located at 91degW for Bell TV.

Virgin Galactic’s Scaled Composites-built 140ft wingspan, 60ft long WhiteKnight/SpaceShipTwo flew for the first time on 22 March from Mojave, California on a flight lasting 2hr 54min, with SpaceShipTwo the reaching an altitude of 45,000ft in preparation for the first commercial flights from Spaceport America, in New Mexico in late 2011-2012, carrying six passengers and two pilots reaching an altitude of 316,000ft. Virgin Galactic has received about $45 million in reservations from 330 passengers each paying $200,000.

Russia launched a Proton Breeze booster from Baikonur on 20th March carrying a DISH Network 14,074lb Space Systems/Loral built EchoStar 14 - the heaviest payload on a Proton - serving the US, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico using 103 Ku-band transponders . The satellite will double the communications power of earlier satellites. Another Proton will launch the SES 1 communications on 24 April.

International Space Station astronauts, Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev landed aboard the Soyuz TMA 16 close to Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on 18 March after a 169 day mission. The ISS crew now comprises Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi and Tim Creamer and will be replaced by Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and Tracy Caldwell Dyson to be launched in Soyuz TMA on 2 April.

The U.K. Space Agency will be opened on April 1 at a new £40 million the International Space Innovation Centre "The action we're taking today shows that we're really serious about space," said Lord Paul Drayson, U.K. Minister for Science and Innovation, Drayson said that the British space industry has remained strong despite recession troubles elsewhere and could grow into a £40 billion ($60 billion)-a-year industry and create more than 100,000 jobs over the next 20 years. The United Kingdom's space and satellite industry currently supports about 68,000 jobs and contributes £6 billion ($9 billion) annually to the economy. The new space center will be built near the European Space Agency's U.K. Research Center in Oxfordshire, England. The U.K. Space Agency replaces the British National Space Centre.

Astrobotic Technology will carry 240 lbs to the Moon for researchers and marketers as part of its maiden expedition in 2012 to win the Google Lunar X Prize. Science instruments, prototype exploration devices and commercial packages will be carried at $700,000 per pound, plus a $250,000 fee per payload to cover the engineering costs of integrating it into either the expedition's lander or its solar-powered robot. Celestis Inc. already has reserved 11 of the 240 pounds available on the initial Moon mission. Houston-based Celestis operates a space burial service for cremated remains, with eight missions thus far to the Moon, Earth orbit or a suborbital trajectory. Astrobotic's mission is pursuing a Google prize that will award up to $25 million for the first team to reach the Moon with an independently developed robot that transmits high-definition video after traveling at least 500 meters. An 150-pound rover and 240 pounds of third-party payload to the Moon. Astrobotic plans to use the Falcon 9 rocket developed by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX. Last year NASA awarded $1.6 billion in contracts to SpaceX to have the Falcon 9 deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Astrobotic Technology plans a series of robotic Moon missions following the "Tranquility Trek" expedition in 2012 to the Apollo 11 site. Later missions on a roughly annual basis will tackle goals such as prospecting for water ice in at the Moon's poles and seeking out volcanic caves as low-cost shelters for both robots and astronauts.

NASA will "get back first" to the moon with President Obama's plan, says the space agency’s chief Charles Bolden, who plans to go to the moon much quicker than the Constellation programme. He said he will focus on developing new space technologies. However, an independent space panel concluded last year that it would be impossible to meet its goal of a lunar landing by 2020. It added that sometime in the 2030s was more likely. Bolden said that time frame would drain NASA funding for years, leaving it unable to develop technologies that are essential for an eventual Mars mission, such as radiation shielding and in-space propulsion that could reduce the travel time from its current estimate of eight months.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will begin building a space capsule to carry two astronauts on its maiden manned mission, scheduled to take place by 2016. ISRO’s satellite centre will fabricate the three-member capsule using anthropometric data, or information on physical attributes peculiar to Indians. The centre will also bridge the gap in developing key restricted technologies and help plan for future missions to the moon. The government is yet to give its nod for the Rs10,000 crore project, which will put India in a select club of nations that includes the US, Russia and China, which have undertaken manned space missions. So far, the government has sanctioned Rs380 crore for preliminary work.

Robert White, the first “astronaut” to fly into space aboard a rocket plane – the legendary X-15 – died on 17 March aged 85.
A 1954 graduate of what is now the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, White became the first lead Air Force project pilot for the X-15 flight research program that was launched by NASA, the Air Force and the Navy. The first flight was in 1958. During an eight-month span in 1961, White achieved three milestones. On 7 March 1961, he became the first pilot to exceed Mach 4, attaining a top speed of 2,905 mph. On 23 June 2 1961 White became the first pilot to exceed Mach 5, recording a speed of 3,603 mph. On 9 November 1961, during the first full-throttle flight of the X-15, he became the first pilot to exceed Mach 6, attaining a top speed of 4,094 mph. Then, on July 17, 1962, White flew the X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet - 59.6 miles above Earth.

18 March (18 March 2010)

THE SPACE DIARY WILL RESUME ON 24 MARCH

16-17 March (17 March 2010)

16-17 March

Space Exploration Technologies (Space-X) will launch a 1300 Space Systems/Loral model aboard a Space-X Falcon 9 as early as 2012 from Cape Canaveral into a GEO orbit. SpaceX's Falcon 9 is a medium-to-heavy lift, two-stage launch vehicle capable of lifting approximately 11 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) and in excess of 4.5 tons to GTO. Falcon 9 along with SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, were selected by NASA to re-supply the International Space Station, starting in 2010.

EADS Astrium has been awarded a 400 million pounds contract to build Skynet 5D for the Ministry of Defence to be launched in 2013.

Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) and Dutch Space BV have joined forces to develop a small geostationary platform called CX2, which will be marketed by SSTL. “Measuring just 1.25m high and with a diameter of 2.6m when stowed, the GMP-CX is capable of carrying payloads of up to 250kg with up to 2.5kW power consumption, but its innovative form factor means that it can use launch vehicle fairing space which is normally unexploited. The new platform also uses SSTL's Geostationary Mini-satellite Platform (GMP) avionics. Lowering GMP-CX's in-orbit delivery cost is intended to stimulate new markets, customers and applications that would otherwise be deterred by the high cost of geostationary satellite procurement and launch.”

The EchoStar XIV satellite, manufactured by Space Systems/Loral, will join DISH Network’s fleet of satellites that serve more than 14 million satellite TV customers in the U.S.From its location at 119 degrees West, EchoStar XIV will provide Ku-band services over the continental United States — the launch is scheduled for March 21, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, with the satellite to be lofted via a Proton M/Breeze M launch vehicle.

Shuttle engineers are investigating a valve problem on the shuttle Discovery that could delay its scheduled launch next month. The issue is with an isolator valve in a helium pressurization system in the orbital maneuvering system pod on the orbiter's right side. In a worst-case scenario, the shuttle would have to be hauled back from the pad to have the pod replaced, which would delay the scheduled April 5 launch by several weeks. Engineers plan tests to see how serious the valve problem is and if the problem is minor enough to allow the orbiter to fly as is. Discovery 131 is scheduled to perform a 13-day mission to the ISS, delivering supplies and performing other work on the station.

Astrobotic Technology will carry 240 lbs. (109 kg) to the Moon for researchers and marketers as part of its maiden expedition in 2012 to hopefully win the Google Lunar X Prize. Science instruments, prototype exploration devices and commercial packages will be carried at $700,000 per pound, plus a $250,000 fee per payload to cover the engineering costs of integrating it into either the expedition's lander or its solar-powered robot. The Google prize will award up to $25 million for the first team to reach the Moon with an independently developed robot that transmits high-definition video after travelling at least 500 meters. Astrobotic plans to earn additional revenue from carrying payloads for space agencies, aerospace contractors and corporations. Astrobotic Technology plans a series of robotic Moon missions following the "Tranquility Trek" expedition in 2012 to the Apollo 11 site. Later missions on a roughly annual basis will tackle goals such as prospecting for water ice in at the Moon's poles and seeking out volcanic caves as low-cost shelters for both robots and astronauts. To get both its 150-pound rover and 240 pounds of third-party payload to the Moon, Astrobotic plans to use the Falcon 9 rocket developed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Last year NASA awarded $1.6 billion in contracts to SpaceX to have the Falcon 9 deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

The US Air Force 29ft long, 15ft foot-wide Orbital Test Vehicle arrived in Cape Canaveral for launch on April 19, The OTV spaceplane was built at a Boeing Phantom Works facility in Southern California. The 11,000-pound vehicle will be launched aboard an Atlas 5 rocket. The reusable spacecraft used to be called the X-37B. The NASA version of the X-37 featured an equipment bay 7 feet long and 4 feet in diameter for experiments and deployable payloads. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency completed a series of approach and landing tests in 2007 using the White Knight airplane from Scaled Composites as a mothership.

Leaders of the U.S. military's space programmes told a Senate subcommittee last week that the cost and reliability of multiple liquid and solid propulsion rockets could suffer if NASA retires the Space Shuttle and cancels the Ares 1 booster. Officials specifically cited the unmanned EELV Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets, saying their costs could soar in the next few years due to under-utilized industrial capabilities and high vendor overhead.The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle programme, which includes the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets. Shuttle solid rocket boosters, the Ares 1 first stage, Delta rocket strap-on motors and Minuteman and Trident missile stages are all manufactured by ATK, a major defense and aerospace contractor.The Space Shuttle will be retired later this year, the Ares rocket has been shelved, and ATK just completed a contract to build new rocket motors for the Minuteman missile to replace aging systems in the U.S. strategic arsenal.

The European Space Agency released this week some of the best images ever of the Martian moon Phobos, taken by an ESA spacecraft earlier this month. ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, in orbit around Mars for several years, made several close passes of the small moon earlier this month; ESA released images taken during those flybys on Monday. The images show surface features with resolutions as sharp as 4.4 meters per pixel, making them some of the best images ever of the moon. The imagery includes the proposed landing site for a Russian spacecraft, Phobos-Grunt, scheduled for launch in 2011. That spacecraft would land on Phobos and collect a sample for return to Earth.

Production of the Automated Transfer Vehicles is gearing up. After the flawless flight of the first ATV, Jules Verne, the second, Johannes Kepler, is being completed for launch later this year. Now the third ATV has been named after the Italian physicist and space pioneer Edoardo Amaldi.

40 years ago
17 March 1970
The Soviet Union launched a Vostok booster from Plesetsk carrying the weather Meteor 1-03 spacecraft into an 81deg inclination orbit.

13-16 March (15 March 2010)

Space-X completed a static firing of the nine 800,000lb thrust Merlin 9 engines for 3.5s for the Falcon 9 on 13 March paving the way for a shakedown flight from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral no earlier than 12 April. The demonstration mission in July will reach orbit of about 155 miles carrying a Dragon spacecraft qualification spacecraft. The Dragon will fly supplies missions to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9's first launch will be a demonstration mission into low-altitude orbit about 155 miles above Earth leading to a “rendezvous”. SpaceX says the Falcon 9 and Dragon can be modified to safely deliver astronauts to space by 2013, or about two-and-a-half years after winning a contract. Other rockets, including the Atlas 5, Delta 4 and Taurus 2 vehicles, could also bid for commercial crew contracts. NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to fly 12 operational Falcon 9 and Dragon missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2011. SpaceX plans a shakedown flight of the Dragon in July, followed by a rendezvous demonstration with the ISS in November. SpaceX says the Falcon 9 and Dragon can be modified to safely deliver astronauts to space by 2013 or about two-and-a-half years after winning a contract.

The Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft is homing in on Earth. Returning from a harrowing visit to an asteroid, the probe is now tweaking its trajectory to precisely guide a re-entry capsule to a parachuted landing in Australia this June.

Bigelow Aerospace seeks professional astronauts to fill permanent positions. Qualified applicants need to have completed a training programme from their government or recognized space agency and have at least some flight experience on a recognized space mission.

40 years ago
13 March 1970
The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 326, a Zenit 2 reconnaissance spacecraft into an 81deg inclination on an area survey photo mission lasting 8 days.

11-12 March (12 March 2010)

NASA could keep the Space Shuttle operational but at a cost of $2.4 billion and a two-year gap without launches. At the moment there are four more Space Shuttle missions to launch to September 2010. The White House says: "A foundational element of this new strategy is to invest in the development of a targeted set of inter-related technologies and capabilities that can help us travel from the Earth's cradle to our nearby solar system neighbourhood in a more effective and affordable way, thus laying the foundation to support journeys to the Moon, asteroids, and eventually to Mars."

Russia’s Institute of Medical and Biological Problems has selected 11 shortlist candidates for a 520 day simulation of an expedition to Mars and back. The shortlist includes five Russian engineers: 44-year-old Boris Yegorov, 30-year-old Andrei Zhirnov, 32-year-old Alexander Sukhov, 37-year-old Mikhail Sidelnikov and 38-year-old Alexei Sitev. Two Russian doctors, surgeon Sukhrob Kamolov, 32, and general practitioner Alexander Smolevsky, 33, were also chosen. The foreign candidates are 34-year-old Archanmael Gaillard from France, Belgian Jerome Clevers, 30, Italian Diego Urbina, 27, and 27-year-old Wang Yue from China.

Britain’s Astrium subsidiary, Paradigm has been awarded a contract to build a fourth Skynet 5 military communications satellite. Paradigm’s contract has been extended to 2022.

Bad weather at Cape Canaveral has halted the second attempt to launch the first Space-X Falcon 9 booster. The launch is scheduled for April 12.

The US Navy plans to launch the first delayed next-generation Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) communications satellites until September 2011, a ten month delay. The MUOS program will consist of four operational satellites and one on-orbit spare. The MUOS spacecraft are built by Lockheed Martin. A mysterious secretive U.S. government satellite, PAN launched in September 2009 was linked to a potential gap between earlier narrowband satellites and the delayed MUOS programme.

International Space Station countries are discussing extending the life of the space base until 2020 or even 2028. Russia provides Progress cargo freighters, Europe and Japan build the ATV and HTV spacecraft and the United States has contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences for commercial robotic logistics missions. The final Space Shuttle mission carrying the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer may be delayed into 2011 or later.

GeoEye has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin to build the GeoEye 2 satellite with a resolution of 41cm.

Russia and Japan may join ESA to fly a mission to Mercury with work starting in 2014.

50 years ago

Pioneer 5
11 March 1960

The 94lb Pioneer 5 was launched aboard a Thor Able booster from Cape Canaveral on a mission to fly in a solar orbit between Earth and Venus to explore solar flare effects, particle energies and distributions of magnetic phenomena until 26 June 1960 at a distance 22.5 million miles from the Earth establishing a communications record.

9-10 March (10 March 2010)

Arianespace is to buy 14 Soyuz-ST boosters from Russia , with the first launch in the second quarter of the year.

President Barack Obama will host a conference on the future of space projects on 15 April in Florida.

The schedule for the four remaining Space Shuttle missions are: STS 131 Discovery on 5 April, with a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) and a Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Carrier. STS 132: Atlantis with an Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC) and a Mini Research Module (MRM1). STS 134: Endeavour with an Express Logistics Carrier 3 and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). STS 133: Discovery ELC4 and Permanent Multi-Purpose Module. The Shuttle will be able to launched after the September 30 deadline. The problem is that its costs $200 million a month to keep the Shuttle each month but there is no more money. Many have urged that the Shuttle programme be extended to reduce US dependency on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, in order to continue building the ISS until the Shuttle's successor can take off by 2015 at the very earliest.

The US Air Force plans four test flights of the Mach 6 Boeing X-51 Waverider developed for the Air Force Laboratory and Defense Advanced Projects Agency.

China will launch its third Chang’e unmanned moon probe in 2013 in preparation for complete a three-phase moon mission in 2017 featuring a lunar sample return mission.

Space-X attempted a static firing of the nine-Merlin 1C engines of a Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral but tit ended in a pad-abort at T-2s.

Technical and political problems experienced by the Russian 111ft Dnepr booster will delay the launch of four European satellites, including Cryo 2, from three Dnepr boosters from Baikonur and one from the Yasny base in southern Russian to early April. Another Dnepr is scheduled to launch in late May, carrying TanDem-X.

China has selected two aero-transport females to join the astronaut corps. China selected its first batch of 14 astronauts in the middle 1990s. It has sent six astronauts into space since 2003, including astronaut Zhai Zhigang who carried out China's first outer space walk in September 2008. China plans to launch an unmanned space module in 2011, which is regarded as an essential step toward building a space station.

40 years ago
10 March 1970

A Diamant B rocket was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying two DIAL-WIKA satellites made by French and Germany into 5.40deg inclination weighing 138 and 114lb respectively.

4-8 March (8 March 2010)

The long duration test firing of the 17 metre first core stage with 110 tons of propellants on India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk III was aborted at 150s of a planned 200s ground test at the Indian Space Research Organisations’ Mahendragiri Liquid Propulsion Systems Center.

Orbital Sciences Corporation will acquire the spacecraft development and manufacturing business of General Dynamics, strengthenimg the company's capabilities to design and manufacture Earth science, weather and climate monitoring and space-based astronomy satellite systems. By adding advanced medium-class spacecraft platforms to Orbital's existing small-satellite product line.

Senator Kay Hutchison – in conjunction with Representatives Suzanne Kosmas and Bill Posey – has produced a 37 page Bill that proposes major refinements to NASA’s FY2011 proposal, and NASA’s forward plan. The Bill is centered around a Shuttle extension to 2015, in support of fully utilizing the International Space Station (ISS), along with saving elements of Constellation – such as Orion and a Heavy Lift Launcher (HLV).

China launched a CZ-4C Chang Zheng from the Jiuquan Satellite launch base on 5 March carrying the YaoGan Weixing 9 “for remote sensing” but is more likely a reconnaissance. The launch was the second orbital launch by China this year, the 124th Chinese orbital launch, the 43rd orbital launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and the first orbital launch from Jiuquan this year. This was the fifth use of a CZ-4C launcher. A Long March 5 is will begin launching around 2014.

A Delta 4 booster was launched from Cape Canaveral on 4 March carrying a Boeing-built Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) P. GOES N and O were launched in 2006 and 2009. The satellites are placed at 12deg inclination and in 21,860-4,100 miles orbits.

40 years ago
4 March 1970

The Soviet Union launched a Voskhod booster from Plesetsk carrying a Zenit 2 reconnaissance satellite, Cosmos 325 into a 65deg inclination orbit. The recoverable film capasule was recovered on 12 March.

The US Air force launched a Thorad Agena booster from Vandenberg AFB, California carrying a KH-4B surveillance satellite into an 88deg orbit, which returned a film capsule, with a secondary satellites SRV 819 and the OPS 3402 sigint spacecraft.

23 February-2 March (2 March 2010)

23-26 February-2 March

OverHorizon OHO-1 will be launched by Arianespace in mid-2012 aboard an Ariane booster. The 3,200kg OHO will be based on the Thales Alenia Space Star 2.3 platform equipped with a two-way Ku-broadband payload for cars, trucks, boats and aircraft. OverHorizon is Arianspace’s 32nd customer.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden says that sending astronauts to Mars is still the ultimate goal for US human spaceflight but would be at least 10 years in the future - but probably much longer! Bolden says NASA will focus on developing futuristic new technologies before selecting a destination and that NASA astronauts could visit the moon or nearby asteroids before setting sail for Mars. Bolden says that it was impractical to continue with the $9 billion Constellation programme because financial problems.

A draft Congressional bill leaked to Flight International sets out the politicians' alternate plan. It involves possibly extending Shuttle life to 2015, running competitive commercial crew and cargo programmes and continuing development of Constellation's vehicles including a heavylift rocket designed to get astronauts to the Moon in the 2020s and then Mars.

Former NASA Johnson Space Centre chief, Aaron Cohen has died at 79, while famed space artist, Robert McCall has died aged 90.

Russia launched a Proton booster with three Information Satellite Systems Reshetev Company Glonass M navigation satellites on 1 March, each weighing 3,000lb.There are 18 operational satellites. Global service requires 24 healthy Glonass satellites, while complete coverage of Russian territory demands 18 operational spacecraft. The next Proton launch is scheduled for March 20 with the EchoStar 14 direct broadcasting satellite for the United States.

Boeing has completed its system-level Critica Design Review for the planned Data Relay Satellite K-L programme.

Astrium has completed the qualification testing of the dispenser for the second-generation Globalstar for Ariane 5 launches.

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with French Space Agency to build the Jason 3 oceanographic satellite based on a Proteus platform. The satellite will be equipped with a Doris precise orbit determination system, an Advance Microwave Radiometer, a GPS payload and a Laser Retro-reflector Array. Jason 3 will placed into a 1,336km, 66deg inclination orbit.

The 52nd and final Space Shuttle SRB was tested in Utah, marking another milestone of the end of the programme.

The University of Queensland will lead a $14 million international consortium to help develop scramjet-based access-to-space systems, flying an autonomous scramjet vehicle at eight times the speed of sound - Mach 8, or 8600 km/h. In parallel, scramjet concepts will be tested at even greater speeds, up to Mach 14, in UQ's world class hypersonic ground-test facilities. Scramjets are air-breathing engines capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds, greater than Mach 5.
NASA and the Italian Space Agency announced a new use for the Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) "Leonardo, which will be transformed into a Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) for the International Space Station.

William E. Gordon, an electrical engineer who conceived, designed, built and operated the world’s largest radio telescope, which has been described as Earth’s ear to outer space died on February 16, aged 92. The telescope, a dish the size of 26 football fields, occupies a small valley in Puerto Rico. It is big enough to emit the strongest radio waves and receive the weakest ones.

NASA plans to launch a heavy-lift booster by 2020 using a hydrocarbon first stage, after technology demonstration missions starting in 2014 with costs of $400 million to $1 million. Robotic precursor missions throughout the solar system and studies of human health and endurance for potential deep space missions are planned. "A strong candidate would be a hydrocarbon (liquid oxygen/kerosene) engine, capable of generating high levels of thrust approximately equal to or exceeding the performance of the Russian-built RD-180 engine," the NASA budget estimate said. "Other key target characteristics for this new capability include improvements in overall engine robustness and efficiency, health monitoring, affordability, and operability." The 2011 budget request provides $3.1 billion over the next five years for propulsion development. NASA would also build and test new in-space engines burning methane and liquid hydrogen fuels. First missions will begin in 2012. NASA will pursue international, commercial and U.S. government partners for the largest demos. NASA is also committing to starting funding on two robotic precursor mission in 2011, likely including a lunar mission to be operated in real-time from Earth. Another precursor mission could target a landing on an asteroid or one of the moons of Mars.

NASA could procure commercial crew spacecraft for flights as early as 2014, in the same way of space agency’s Commercial Transportation Services (COTS), which will likely be SpaceX and Orbital Sciences. The NASA budget request for 2011 includes $6 billion over the next five years for commercial crew development. United Launch Alliance has several spacecraft developers who want to use the Atlas 5 rocket. Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace are working on a space capsule and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser lifting body design.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to send two astronauts to space within six to seven years.

"A uniquely American vision of a bold space program can be supported by Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. It would inspire the public and provide numerous technological and engineering spin-offs, while demonstrating to the world that the U.S. remains an optimistic and courageous leader. Congress should firmly reject President Obama's belly-gazing approach to the future and the next frontier by reaffirming the U.S. commitment to manned spaceflight and colonization, set dates for a manned mission to Mars, and boost NASA's budget with these goals in mind." (The Hill).

50 years ago
26 February 1960

An Atlas Agena A was launched from Cape Canaveral carrying a 4,464lb Midas early warning satellite but the second stage failed to separate.

40 years ago
27 February 1970

The Soviet Union launched a Kosmos booster from Plesetsk carrying Cosmos 324, a 716lb military target into a 71deg inclination orbit.