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Parabolas: Russian Space Spending to Double, NASA Must Spend More on Orion

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Russia to Double Space Exploration Expenditure in 2009 - Agency
Interfax-AVN

“Russian budgetary expenditure on space exploration will more than double in 2009, Federal Space Agency Deputy Director Vitaly Davydov told Interfax- AVN at the Farnborough Air Show.

“‘The Finance Ministry has informed us of budgetary allocations planned for the federal space program in 2009. I am glad to say that the allocations will more than double,’ he said.”

Orion program over budget, behind schedule
Florida Today

The cost problems include an $80 million overrun on a motor system. The Orion spacecraft’s current design remains too heavy for the proposed Ares 1 rocket. Software development, heat-shield testing and a host of other complex work remains either behind schedule or over budget. Those are just a few of dozens of serious challenges and issues, many of which are noted as ‘worsening.’

NASA has repeatedly stressed its aggressive internal 2013 target required few technical surprises and stable budget. The new report indicates neither of those conditions exist.

New Coalition to Push for Cheap Access to Space

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SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION NEWS RELEASE

Nyack, NY, July 16, 2008 – A broad array of not-for-profit organizations will announce the creation of a National Coalition for Cheap and reliable Access to Space (CATS) on July 17th at the NewSpace 2008 Conference. The Coalition will sponsor a National Summit on CATS in the battleground state of Ohio on October 7th & 8th, one month before the presidential election, and will deliver a Declaration for CATS to the next President of the United States.

The initial members of the National Coalition for CATS include the Space Frontier Foundation, the Ohio Aerospace Institute, the National Space Society, the California Space Authority, the NewSpace Alliance, the Progress & Freedom Foundation, the Space Studies Institute, the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), the Space Power Association, the Spaceward Foundation, the Space Generation Advisory Council, the Moon Society, the Aerospace Technology Working Group, and the Committee for the Advocacy of Space Exploration. Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, will be the host of the Summit.

Charles Miller, the coordinator of the National Coalition for CATS, said: “Cheap and reliable access to space, or CATS, is something that nearly all space organizations can agree is very important to the future of our nation in space. All roads to a hopeful future in space go through cheap access to space.”

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Heads of the Five Space Agencies Meet; Is Bloody ISS Turf War Finally Over?

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Guy Bujold, Canadian Space Agency president; Jean-Jacques Dordain, European Space Agency director-general; NASA Administrator Michael Griffin; Anatolii N. Perminov, Russian Federal Space Agency head; and Keiji Tachikawa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency president. Credit: ESA/S. Corvaja

The Heads of the Five Families Space Agencies met in Paris this week to discuss ending the Mob war, dividing up the narcotics trade, and bringing Michael Corleone back from Sicily the future of the International Space Station.

Among other things, the meeting produced this statement supporting their own efforts on - of all things - the International Space Station, which they have spent the last 20 years building.

Heads of Agency International Space Station Joint Statement

PARIS — The heads of the International Space Station (ISS) agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met at European Space Agency (ESA) Headquarters in Paris on July 17, 2008, to review ISS cooperation. As part of their discussions, they noted the significantly expanded capability that the ISS now provides for on-orbit research and technology development activities and as an engineering test bed for flight systems and operations that are critical to future space exploration initiatives. These activities improve the quality of life on Earth by expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

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Apprentice Star Books Suborbital Space Flight

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Well, the mogul who loves saying “You’re fired!” is himself going to get fired…all the way up into space.

Yes, the star of The Apprentice has forked over $200,000 to Virgin Galactic for a suborbital space flight. So, you’re asking, how long will it be before we see that publicity-shy New Yorker barking out orders, mugging for the camera, and watching as his toupee floats off into its own orbit?

If we’re lucky, never. The guy going into space is actually Bill Cullen, star of the Irish version of The Apprentice - a show that hasn’t even aired yet. Which is probably why most people have never heard of him. And why few people outside Ireland will really care when he actually does fly.

NASA Continues Search for New Florida Launch Site

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NASA is talking with military officials about whether they could build a commercial launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The talks come after NASA’s original idea - putting it in the middle of a world-renowned national wildlife refuge - was roundly panned by the public.

Cape now gets look for new NASA launch complex
Florida Today

NASA still considering using wildlife refuge for private ventures
Orlando Sentinel

‘Miserable Failure’ Oversees Miserable Failure

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If you do a search for “miserable failure” on certain web search engines, the top result will be a link to George W. Bush’s official White House biography. This is a result of multiple webmasters using the phrases “failure” and “miserable failure” to describe and link to the White House website.

They should probably be using that same technique to link to Bush’s space program, or more specifically, NASA. At least according to one Congressman. The Houston Chronicle reports:

“Two days after telling an online town hall meeting that NASA had ‘failed us miserably’ and ‘wastes a vast amount of money,’ Houston Rep. John Culberson said Thursday he was weighing legislation to overhaul the structure of the space agency responsible for about 20,000 Houston-area jobs.

“Culberson, a blunt-spoken conservative from a heavily Republican westside district, said his proposal would slash NASA headquarter’s bureaucracy and enable scientists and engineers to rekindle visionary space exploration.

“‘We need revolutionary change, a complete restructuring,’ Culberson told the Houston Chronicle. ‘NASA needs complete freedom to hire and fire based on performance, it needs to be driven by the scientists and the engineers, and it needs to be free of politics as much as possible.’”

Stewardess Eats Kitt Katt Bar, Wins Trip to Space

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Air hostess picks up chocolate bar, wins space trip
Reuters

“A French air hostess will become one of Europe’s pioneer space tourists after picking a chocolate wrapper out of the rubbish and finding a winning number in a competition to fly to the upper reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere…

“[Mathilde Epron] will receive four days of astronaut training in Oklahoma City in the United States before boarding the Rocketplane XP aircraft which will reach an altitude of 100 km (60 miles) and allow a five-minute experience of weightlessness.”

When precisely that will be is unclear; Rocketplane XP has yet to even conduct a test flight.

Hamilton Sundstrand Challenges Spacesuit Award to Oceaneering

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Hamilton Sundstrand protests NASA contract
Associated Press

“Hamilton Sundstrand has protested NASA’s selection of a Texas company to supply the space agency’s next-generation space suit. The subsidiary of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp. and a partner company filed the protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Monday. Company officials do not believe they got adequate information from NASA about why Hamilton Sundstrand lost out, the company said in a statement.

“The contract was awarded June 12 to Houston-based Oceaneering International Inc., best known for providing deep water services and products to the oil and gas industry. Hamilton Sundstrand and its partner, ILC Dover of Frederica, Del., have supplied the space suits since the 1960s.”

Phoenix Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample

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PHOENIX MISSION UPDATE

TUCSON, Ariz. — A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander successfully drilled into the frozen soil and loosened material that was collected in the lander’s scoop.

Images and data sent from Phoenix early Wednesday indicated the shaved material in the scoop had changed slightly over time during the hours after it was collected.

The motorized rasp — located on the back of the lander’s robotic arm scoop — made two distinct holes in a trench informally named “Snow White.” The material loosened by the rasp was collected in the scoop and documented by the Robotic Arm Camera. The activity was a test of the rasping method of gathering an icy sample, in preparation for using that method in coming days to collect a sample for analysis in an oven of Phoenix’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.

“This was a trial that went really well,” said Richard Morris, a Phoenix science team member from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston. “While the putative ice sublimed out of the shavings over several hours, this shows us there will be a good chance ice will remain in a sample for delivery” to Phoenix’s laboratory ovens.

Phoenix on Wednesday will be commanded to continue scraping and enlarging the “Snow White” trench and to conduct another series of rasp tests. The lander’s cameras will again be used to monitor the sample in the scoop after its collection.

MRO Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

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NASA MISSION UPDATE

Two studies based on data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life.

One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet’s history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.

“The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars’ water was, and how diverse the wet environments were,” said Scott Murchie, CRISM principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

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