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kl90

NASA: $42 Million For Retired Shuttle Orbiter
A Florida retirement home for a shuttle orbiter could cost up to $42 million, NASA disclosed today.

The agency released a request for ideas about where to put two of three orbiters after the fleet's planned September 2010 retirement.

The orbiter Discovery is already promised to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

That leaves Atlantis and Endeavour available to museums and other institutions capable of displaying the orbiters properly indoors and inspiring the public.

But they'll have to come up with some serious cash.

NASA estimates it will cost $28.2 million to clean the spaceships of toxic, volatile propellants, and another $8 million to prepare them for display.

And ferrying the spacecraft to its final resting spot - unnecessary if the orbiter stayed on the Space Coast - would cost another $5.8 million.

"We don't feel like taxpayers should be funding the bill to make them safe for public display," said Mike Curie, a spokesman at NASA headquarters in Washington.

You can read NASA's Request for Information, or RFI, here.

Space Florida, a state agency chartered with promoting and attracting aerospace business, has led a push for Florida to get a retired spacecraft.

Representatives recently asked legislators in Brevard and Volusia counties to support a resolution requesting that an orbiter remain in the state.

The resolution is being drafted and could be released next month, said Deb Spicer, vice president for communications, government and external affairs for Space Florida.

"This is history. They have not launched from anywhere else in the world," said Spicer. "For economic development and the tourism industry, it's a perfect fit. Florida should be strongly considered to receive one of the orbiters once they're retired."

kl90

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Spacewalkers Set Up, Haul Back Experiments

U.S. astronaut Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov are back inside the International Space Station after a spacewalk aimed at setting up and retrieving science experiments outside the outpost.

With the station flying 220 miles above the planet, the core members of Expedition 18 closed the hatch to the Russian Pirs airlock at 1:33 a.m. EST, officially marking the end of the five-hour, 38-minute excursion.

Fincke and Lonchakov made fast work of their first and highest-priority task. They set up a special probe that will measure the electromagnetic potential outside the station, which is thought to be the cause of explosive bolt failures that led to back-to-back ballistic reentries for Soyuz spacecraft in October 2007 and in April.

Installation of the ball-shaped device was ordered up by a Russian investigation commission; data from it is expected to firm up the theory that the electromagnetic potential around the station caused the failure of explosive bolts designed to separate sections of Soyuz spacecraft prior to reentry.

The spacewalkers also retrieved a space science experiment and set up two experiments on a platform attached to the outer hull of the Russian Zvezda Service Module.

One of those experiments -- a Russian plasma physics experiment -- worked just fine. But the second -- a European space exposure experiment -- failed to send back signals to the ground.

The spacewalkers disconnected and reconnected power and data cables to the EXPOSE-R experiment to no avail. No telemetry was received from the experiment, so the spacewalkers disconnected it and brought it back inside the station for further analysis.

The spacewalk started at 7:51 p.m. EST Monday and ended at 1:29 a.m. today. It was the fifth for station skipper Fincke, who performed four spacewalks as a flight engineer during Expedition 9 in 2004. He now has chalked up 21 hours and 23 minutes of spacewalking time.

The excursion was the first spacewalk for Lonchakov.

"Yury, was it beautiful?" asked fellow flight engineer Sandra Magnus, who was inside the station during the spacewalk.

"Yes, it was beautiful," Lonchakov replied. "But we really didn't have time to look around."

"That's no good," Magnus said.

It was the 119th spacewalk performed during the assembly and maintenance of the station since the first two building blocks of the outpost were linked in low Earth orbit 10 years ago this month.

Working in a deadly vacuum, astronauts and cosmonauts have tallied 751 hours and seven minutes of safe spacewalking operations during that time.

kl90

Tuesday, December 23, 2008
SpaceX and Orbital Share Cargo Contract
SpaceX will share a multi-billion-dollar NASA contract with a Virginia company to carry cargo to the International Space Station.

At Cape Canaveral the California company now is assembling the nine-engined rocket that might do the job if it flies successfully this spring. This contract by 2011 could result in the creation of about 1,000 local jobs by the streamlined rocket company founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, who created and sold PayPal.

Under terms of the contract, cargo flights would begin in 2010, just as the space shuttle stops flying. Cargo carriers under development by the Japanese and the Europeans could not keep the space station fully supplied. And the U.S. is reluctant to rely on the Russian Progress cargo carriers.

"We have a real need for this cargo capability," Associate NASA Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier said.

Gerstenmaier added that the station could not function effectively without critical cargo planned for these shipments.

"We would end up cutting back on our research and maybe the crew," he said.
The two contracts went to Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., and to SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif. NASA has ordered eight flights valued at about $1.9 billion from Orbital and 12 flights valued at about $1.6 billion from SpaceX.

Orbital would launch from Wallops Island, Va., and SpaceX would launch from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.

If one of the companies fails, NASA could shift cargo flights to the successful company or solicit other companies to bid for cargo delivery.
NASA rejected the bid of PlanetSpace Inc., a joint effort of ATK and Lockheed Martin.

The contracts run Jan. 1, 2009 through Dec. 31, 2016 and call for the delivery of at least of 20 metric tons of cargo to the space station. Each company will receive payments as they meet development milestones. The maximum potential value of each contract is about $3.1 billion.

However, neither company has a track record of lifting heavy cargo to low-Earth orbit, and neither company has performed delicate rendezvous operations at 17,000 mph, the speed of an orbiting spacecraft. Orbital builds and launches medium-sized satellites, while SpaceX successfully orbited its fourth Falcon 1 rocket in September, after three launch failures.

"We have a true need for this now," said Gerstenmaier. "We didnâ

kl90

Tuesday, December 30, 2008
NASA: Columbia Crew Survived A Short Time

The Columbia astronauts survived for 45 seconds after their spaceship careened out of control during atmospheric reentry in 2003 but lost consciousness after their crew cabin depressurized 12 miles above Texas, a new NASA report shows.

The seven astronauts were not securely strapped into their seats, and spacesuit helmets lacked head, lumbar and neck restraints, resulting in "thrashing" injuries and lethal trauma to the unconscious crew, the report says.

Among 30 recommendations: Future spacesuits and spacecraft should be designed to minimize crew injury and maximize crew survival during accident scenarios, the report says. Head and neck restraints similar to those used in professional automobile racing also should be employed, it says.

"In summary, many findings, conclusions, and recommendations have resulted from this investigation which will be valuable both to spacecraft designers and accident investigators," said a special NASA study group that included independent experts. "It is the team's expectation that readers will approach the report with the respect and integrity that the subject and the crew of Columbia deserve."

You can download and save a copy of the 400-page report (16.2 MB) in PDF format here: Crew Survival Report PDF

NASA has it posted here:
Crew Survival Report
At 4 p.m. EST, you can listen live to a media teleconference by clicking here: Listen Live: Media Teleconference

Evidence analyzed by the study group shows the Columbia astronauts were aware of the loss of control of the vehicle and were taking actions consistent with an attempt to recover hydraulic pressure.

The shuttle had lost hydraulic pressure to its aerosurfaces as a result of hot gasses blow-torching through a hole in its left wing. The astronauts and Mission Control had noted the failure of tire-pressure and thermal sensors just prior to the break-up of the vehicle.

Once cabin pressure was lost, the astronauts were rendered unconscious or killed. In either case, they were unaware of any subsequent "physical or thermal events," the report says.

"The crew was not exposed to a cabin fire or thermal injury prior to the depressurization, cessation of breathing, and loss of consciousness," the report says.

There is no evidence that crew error contributed to the accident.

The cause of death for the astronauts is listed as "unprotected exposure to high-altitude and blunt trauma."

The report noted that the partial-pressure launch-and-entry suits worn by the astronauts were designed to protect them at altitudes up to 100,000 feet, or about 19 miles, and air speeds up to 560 knots, or 644 mph.

The depressuization of the crew cabin occurred at 63,500 feet, or about 12 miles in altitude.

The suits were not designed to protect the astronauts from the reentry environment, where temperatures reach extremes as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The bulky, bright-orange suits were a crew safety enhancement added after the 1986 Challenger accident. That shuttle and seven astronauts were lost in an explosion 73.6 seconds after liftoff.

The launch-and-entry suits primarily are designed to protect astronauts in scenarios during which a bail-out over the Atlantic Ocean might be required. Shuttles are equipped with a rudimentary crew escape system, also added after Challenger, that would enable astronauts to use a telescoping pole to bail out of an orbiter, but only during controlled gliding flight.

Astronauts on the first 24 shuttle missions wore only blue jumpsuits and crash-type helmets. The shuttle's flight deck was equipped with ejection seats for the first four shuttle missions, but those were removed when crew size was subsequently expanded to include astronauts riding on the shuttle's mid-deck.

The study group recommended that future speacesuits and spacecraft take into account the environments crews might be exposed to during both launch and entry accidents.

Columbia's five-man, two woman crew was lost when the shuttle disintegrated over east Texas during an ill-fated atmospheric reentry on Feb. 1, 2003.

Investigators subsequently found that hot gasses breached the shuttle's left wing, leading to the structural break-up of the vehicle 16 minutes before a planned landing at Kennedy Space Center.

The investigators blamed the accident of a 1.67-pound piece of foam insulation that broke free from the shuttle's external tank 81 seconds after launch and then blasted a six- to 10-inch hole in the left wing. The damage went undetected during a 16-day space science mission.

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 31-12-2008 12:17 PM 编辑 ]

kl90

http://www.floridatoday.com/cont ... wSurvivalReport.pdf

[ 本帖最后由 kl90 于 31-12-2008 12:18 PM 编辑 ]

kl90

Discovery Readied for Launch Platform
The first of six planned space shuttle missions in 2009 kicks off in earnest this week with Discovery's placement on a launch platform.

Kennedy Space Center workers early Wednesday are scheduled to roll the orbiter a quarter mile from its processing hangar to the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building.

During a weeklong stay there, the spaceship will be connected to an external tank and twin solid rocket boosters already stacked on a mobile launcher platform.

"This is the starting point for all of our shuttle launches," said KSC spokesman Allard Beutel. "That means the orbiter is a step away from the launch pad."

Discovery is slated to blast off Feb. 12 on a 14-day mission to install the International Space Station's final pair of power-generating solar wings.

The shuttle will haul the 11th and final piece of the station's central backbone, a 31,000-pound truss segment from which two 115-foot solar arrays will be unfurled.

In addition to the shuttle's move Wednesday, the truss is expected to be loaded in a canister for transportation to launch pad 39A on Sunday.

Discovery is expected to roll from the assembly building out to the seaside launch pad Jan. 14.

The shuttle will use the external tank and boosters from which Atlantis was removed after its mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope was postponed last fall.

That mission, the year's second, is tentatively targeted for mid-May.

Discovery's flight will be the orbiter's 36th, the 125th by a space shuttle and the 28th shuttle mission to the space station.

Discovery's last mission was STS-124, launching to the space station last May 31 and landing June 13.

kl90

Friends & Family Petition To Keep Griffin
You might have seen the Associated Press story over the holidays about a personal plea to keep Mike Griffin on as NASA Administrator. His wife, Rebecca, sent an e-mail to friends and family urging them to support the veteran rocket scientist as the incoming Obama Administration calculates its plans for the nation's space agency.


Check out the article here:http://www.floridatoday.com/arti ... WS02/901010325/1007

Griffin supporters now can go here to signal their support:http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/KeepMike/index.html

The Obama Transition Team is expected to make a decision on the NASA Administrator and NASA Deputy Administrator slots in the near future, perhaps before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

We're interested in what you think. Click on the comments link below to weigh in on the issue. Should Obama keep Griffin? Or should he nominate a new NASA Administrator? And if so, who? ABOUT THE IMAGE: The Florida Today file photo shows NASA Administrator Mike Griffin (left) and Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations, at a field hearing held last year at Port Canaveral by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

kl90

KSC Mishap Under Investigation
Investigators are looking into what caused a tank to explode at Kennedy Space Center during a contractor's equipment test just before Christmas, NASA officials say.

Seven people were treated for minor injuries at KSC's medical clinic after the incident, which occurred around 9 a.m. Dec. 23 outside a cryogenic lab on space center property.

The most serious injury was abrasions sustained by one worker, said Allard Beutel, a KSC spokesman.

Beutel said ASRC Aerospace Corp. conducted the pressurization test on a composite tank for Lockheed Martin - work that was not related to a NASA project.

The vessel, contained by a metal cage with a plywood box around it, was intended to leak but not rupture, Beutel said.

Marion LaNasa, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, said the test involved an unlined, liquid oxygen compatible tank measuring 54 inches in diameter that is being designed to support future launch vehicles.

In addition to the minor injuries, the blast's force and impact from pieces of plywood caused thousands of dollars of damage to the lab facility. The area is taped off but the building remains open.

A NASA "mishap investigation team" is expected to produce a report by late February, Beutel said.

"They're looking at what happened and how to prevent it from happening again," he said.

kl90

Griffin Plans Departure From NASA
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is planning to leave office on Jan. 20 and a short list of potential candidates is starting to emerge as the incoming Obama Administration moves toward Inauguration Day 2009.

Griffin, a veteran rocket scientist who always has said he serves at the pleasure of the president, does not expect to be offered an opportunity to stay on after the inauguration.

He and all other political appointees from the Bush Administration have submitted their letters of resignation as a matter of course. All are effective Tuesday, Jan. 20. Monday, Jan. 19, is a federal holiday, so that means Friday, Jan. 16, would be Griffin's last day in his ninth-floor office at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Griffin plans to stage a "NASA Update" show on NASA TV on Jan. 16. That event likely will be his swan song with the agency. Friends and family are campaigning and petitioning for Obama to keep Griffin on board, but all indications are that a new NASA Administrator will be nominated along with a new NASA Deputy Administrator sooner rather than later.

The Government Accountability Office rated the impending retirement of NASA's shuttle orbiter fleet as one of the Top 13 issues the new president will have to deal with in short order. The administration is expected to nominate new NASA leadership before making any significant decisions regarding U.S. space policy and the future of the human spaceflight program.

A former astronaut who would be the first African-American NASA Administrator leads a list of potential candidates, according to congressional sources.

Charlie Bolden flew four times on the space shuttle, including the mission to deploy NASA's flagship Hubble Space Telescope and the historic first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission.

He also flew on a 1986 mission with then-congressman Bill Nelson, who now is the senior U.S. senator from the state of Florida. Nelson, whose grandparents homesteaded on land that now is part of NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, is a native of Melbourne.

Nelson likely will be a key figure in the selection process. He oversees a key Senate committee that oversees NASA and he has been advising Obama on the future of the nation's space agency.

Nelson declined comment on the possibility of Bolden heading NASA. But his spokesman Dan McLaughlin said, "The senator views him as a top-notch individual."

Bolden did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Other potential candidates might include:

++Sally Ride, who became the first American woman to fly in space in 1983. Ride, who served on the commissions that investigated both the Challenger and Columbia accidents, wrote an editorial in support of Obama during the presidential election last year.

++Alan Stern. The prinicipal investigator of a mission to Pluton, Stern took the helm as Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters but only served a short term. He left and later criticised NASA for ongoing cost overruns in space and planetary science missions.

++Wesley Huntress. A former NASA space science chief who played a key role in the deployment of a series of vitally important planterary science mission after the 1986 Challenger accident, including the Magellan Venus Radar Mapper, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Galileo Jupiter probe.

++Scott Hubbard. Known for turning around NASA's Mars program after back-to-back failures in the late 1990s, Hubbard was a key member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He went on to serve as an director of NASA's Ames Research Center before leaving the agency for academia.

kl90

NASA Outlines $11 Billion Gap-Closer
NASA could keep its shuttle fleet operating through 2015 and close a five-year gap in U.S. human spaceflight, but the cost would top $11 billion, an internal agency study shows.

The risk to U.S. astronaut crews would rise dramatically, and plans for lunar exploration would be severely hampered.

But the move would enable NASA to retain a critically skilled work force during the transition between the shuttle program and Project Constellation, the nation's bid to return American astronauts to the moon by 2020.

"This option eliminates the gap between shuttle and Constellation operations and allows NASA and its contractors to maintain the critical skills necessary to successfully operate future human space flight programs," NASA officials wrote in a draft of the study, a copy of which was obtained by Florida Today.

Charts in an appendix of the report show that the current shuttle work force -- which now numbers 11,900 -- would gradually decrease to 7,900 in 2015 rather than drop to zero in 2011.

NASA now is operating under a Bush Administration directive to finish the International Space Station and retire the three-orbiter shuttle fleet by the end of September 2010.

The U.S. then would rely on Russia to fly American astronauts to and from the station until Ares 1 rockets and Orion spacecraft are ready to fly in March 2015.

The Russian invasion of Georgia last August prompted President-Elect Barack Obama and Republican challenger John McCain both to question the reliance on the former Soviet Union to provide rides to and from the outpost, which cost American taxpayers an estimated $100 billion to build.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin ordered up two internal studies, both aimed at minimizing the five-year hiatus in U.S. human space flight. One examined extending shuttle fleet operations; the other is evaluating an acceleration of the Constellation project. The idea was to get the information in hand so it would be readily available to a new administration's transition team.

The shuttle extension study was carried out by officials at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Several options were considered, but two were identified as the most viable, according to an executive summary of the report.

++Option 1 added three shuttle flights to the current backlog of nine missions, extending fleet operations through 2012. Cost: roughly $5 billion.

++Option 2 added up to 13 additional flights through 2015 at a cost of $11.4 billion.

You can read more about the studies in Wednesday print editions of Florida Today.

kl90

Bolden: No Contact Yet On NASA's Top Job
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/
Just an update here on the situation with the NASA Administrator post: Charlie Bolden might be a leading candidate for the job, but nobody has asked him yet if he's interested.

"I have not been in contact with the (Obama Administration) Transition Team or anybody else," Bolden told Florida Today.

The buzz about Charlie Bolden as a potential nominee for the Top Job at NASA has resounded across the country today.

A surprised Bolden said his phone has been ringing off the hook with people who are asking him "not to say 'no,'" he said.

"It seems like it just came out of nowhere," Bolden said.

He and his wife, Jackie, love Houston and are happy with their post-NASA life in Texas. But Bolden said he's also learned "never to say never."

At 62, the retired Marine Corps Major General has an impressive resume. Just take a look at his http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bolden-cf.html%3Cbr%20/%3E

Bolden said he would be open to talking about the future of NASA and the direction that the Obama Administration would like to take the agency. He also has some good ideas about who might make a good NASA Administrator -- "and my name is not on that list," Bolden said.

"If I would have any conversation with the transition team, I would plead for continuity -- if not in people, at least continuity in execution," he said.

"Now does that mean we don't change anything right now in the Constellation system?" he asked. "No, it doesn't mean that. But it means let's take a look at things and get to the moon and Mars."

kl90

Discovery Rollover Complete
After a delay of about eight hours because of technical issues and weather, space shuttle Discovery today was rolled from its processing hangar to the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

The move sets up the spacecraft to be mated with an external tank and solid rocket boosters on Thursday.

Then, mounted on an mobile launcher platform, the shuttle is expected to ride to launch pad 39A next Wednesday in advance of a targeted Feb. 12 launch to the International Space Station.

A 76-wheeled, 107-foot long transporter carried Discovery less than a quarter mile, a trip that began just before 2:30 p.m. and ended about 50 minutes later.

The move, which was originally scheduled to start at 6:30 a.m., was delayed first when workers overnight replaced Discovery's left outboard tire, which had lost some air pressure.

Later, technicians examined landing gear on the orbiter's right side to make sure a cable was positioned properly.

By early afternoon, rain showers swept over Cape Canaveral, preventing a move.

But after the rain stopped, workers rolled the 25-year-old spaceship into position.

Discovery's 14-day mission will carry the last pair of American solar wings to the space station.

Earlier today, workers in the Space Station Processing Facility loaded the truss segment holding the packed solar arrays into a canister for transportation to the launch pad, planned over the weekend.

kl90

Discovery Secured On Launch Platform
Shuttle Discovery this morning is being attached to an external fuel tank, a day after rolling from a Kennedy Space Center processing hangar into the 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building.

In the assembly building's High Bay 3, the tank and twin solid rocket boosters are mounted on a mobile launcher platform that NASA plans to deliver to launch pad 39A on Wednesday, starting at 4 a.m.

It will be the second trip to the pad for the external tank and boosters, which were attached to Atlantis when it rolled out Sept. 4. Atlantis was rolled back Oct. 20 and disconnected from the stack after a technical problem with the Hubble Space Telescope forced the servicing mission's postponement.

The launch of Discovery's 14-day mission to the International Space Station is targeted for Feb. 12.

Overnight, cranes hoisted the 100-ton orbiter from the VAB's transfer aisle over a 16th floor transom and lowered it toward the launcher platform.

Discovery is expected to be "soft" mated with three external tank attachment points by this afternoon. Mechanical and electrical connections will continue to be made and tested before the vehicle is ready to depart the assembly building next week.

The shuttle's payload, a 45-foot truss segment weighing 31,000 pounds, on Wednesday was loaded into a canister for transportation to the launch pad this weekend.

The canister today will be rotated into a vertical position for its ride to the launch complex.

The truss segment is the 11th and last piece of the station's backbone. It carries a final pair of American solar arrays that will boost the outpost's power supply by 25 percent.

kl90

ULA Wins USAF Launch Contract
United Launch Alliance has won a $95.7 million U.S. Air Force contract to launch a National Reconnaissance Office satellite on an Atlas V rocket.

This vehicle will launch in two to three years from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. ULA workers from Cape Canaveral will assist with the California launch.

"Any launch that comes to our company is good news to the people here," ULA spokesman Mike Rein said.

The NRO provides satellite reconnaissance for the intelligence community and the Department of Defense.



"The NRO provides a vital service to the war fighter ensuring our nation has the technology and space borne assets needed to acquire intelligence worldwide," said Ed Holtvluwer, ULA Atlas NRO program manager.

ULA's next launch, scheduled for Jan. 13, is a national security payload for the NRO aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 37 at the Cape.

The latest contract will not affect a February layoff, expected to reduce the 800 ULA workers at Cape Canaveral by 23. Nationwide, some 172 of about 4,200 ULA workers will be laid off, though buyouts and attrition could reduce that number.

kl90

Space Florida Meets With Obama Team
The incoming Obama Administration's NASA Review Team tagged up with Space Florida today and had a productive and insightful briefing on the state's role in the future of space exploration.

Space Florida President Steve Kohler met with members of the review team in Washington, D.C., and had a wide-ranging discussion that covered topics such as the state's commercial space infrastructure program -- a project aimed at converting launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station from military to commercial use.

The anticipated five-year hiatus in U.S. human space flight between the 2010 retirement of NASA's shuttle fleet and the first piloted flights of Ares 1 rockets and Orion spacecraft in 2015 also was discussed.

Other topics included the state's plans to create a Commercial Launch Zone at Cape Canaveral that will extend tax benefits to launch services companies -- a concept similar to tax advantages given to businesses operating in Foreign Trade Zones.

You can take a look at a meeting summary here: http://www.floridatoday.com/cont ... ransition%20Team%20(4).doc

Five space policy experts -- four of whom held key NASA posts during the Clinton Administration -- make up the NASA Review Team, which is gathering data on options on various directions that the Obama Administration could take the U.S. space program. They aim to brief Obama and senior advisers before his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The NASA Review team posts summaries from all of its meetings at the Obama Transition Team's web site, and the Space Florida paper will be uploaded here: http://change.gov/open_government/yourseatatthetable. Enter the word "space" or "NASA" in the search field to pull up a selection of summaries that have been posted by the team.

Created by the Legislature in 1989, Space Florida aims to expand aerospace enterprise and attract new space industry businesses to the state. The organization also provides support services to launch and payload providers doing business in Florida.

Space Florida spokeswoman Deb Spicer said the organization contacted the incoming administration's NASA Review Team last month and set up the meeting. The Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast and representatives of the Brevard County Commission met with the review team last month.

kl90

Top-Secret Mission To Launch Tuesday Night
A giant Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off next Tuesday night with a top-secret payload, and the Air Force today released a five-hour launch window that narrows in on the time the behemoth booster will be taking off.

Now nestled within its mobile service tower at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the rocket will be thundering aloft between 7 p.m. and midnight Tuesday. All indications now are that the T-zero time will be not too long after the opening of that window -- possibly around 7:45 p.m. The Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office are expected to release the scheduled launch time on Monday.

The Delta IV Heavy will carry a classified payload into orbit for the NRO, the super-secret organization that owns and operates the nation's constellation of spy satellites.

Those include photo and radar reconnaissance satellites, electronic eavesdropping spacecraft, ocean surveillance satellites as well as orbiters that relay imagery and data back to Earth.

You can watch the launch live here in The Flame Trench. We'll be broadcasting live coverage from United Launch Alliance, a joint partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing that was formed to launch U.S. government satellites, including pyaloads for the NRO, the Department of Defense, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The launch coverage will begin about 25 minutes before liftoff and continue through the time the rocket's payload fairing is jettisoned. The NRO will not release any information on the status of the mission after that time, and there will be no pre-launch or post-launch news conferences.

The U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing is warning mariners to stay out of a Launch Hazard Area off the coast of Cape Canaveral between 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and 12:45 a.m. Wednesday.

You can check out a map of the danger zone here: http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/Delta4LHA.DOC

Officials with the Air Force's Eastern Range will clear the area prior to launch to make certain mariners are not exposed to falling debris in the event of an explosive failure early in flight.

People entering the danger zone during between 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and 12:45 a.m. Wednesday can be fined up to $250,000 and jailed for up to six years.

kl90

GAO Report Faults NASA Oversight
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released today faults oversight of NASA programs by the agency's Office of Inspector General, saying its audits have saved taxpayers little money.

Savings from audits and investigations led by NASA Inspector General Robert "Moose" Cobb in fiscal year 2007 returned just 36 cents per dollar of the office's $34 million budget, according to the report.

That ranks poorly among 30 inspectors general appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, whose average return per dollar spent is $9.49.

"The OIG's relative lack of monetary accomplishments from audits is due, at
least in part, to the OIG's strategic and annual audit plans, which do not
provide assurance that NASA's economy and efficiency will be addressed or
that measurable monetary accomplishments will be achieved," the report states.

You can read the report http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/GAO_08Dec.pdf and tell us what you think.

In a response provided to a draft report, Cobb disagreed with the GAO's findings, saying they were based on "selective and incomplete data and flawed characterizations of the work, processes and accomplishments of the NASA OIG."

Here's a link to the http://oig.nasa.gov/

kl90

Falcon 9 Up, Then Down, at LC 40
After only a few days on the launch pad, the first Falcon 9 will leave Launch Complex 40 in pieces.

Having tested and proven the technique for raising the rocket to vertical, SpaceX workers will disassemble the 188-foot rocket and ship it back to California and Texas for testing.

"Now it's more execution than design," Tim Buzza, vice president of launch operations for Space Exploration Technologies Corp. said Monday. "We're well-positioned to see the entire site come together in the next couple of months."

SpaceX plans to reassemble the rocket for a wet dress rehearsal in March, when the rocket will be fueled. Also, an engine test firing is possible. The first launch from Cape Canaveral is scheduled for the summer, with a NASA demonstration launch to follow two months later.

When launch operations begin after successful test flights, SpaceX will increase its 35-member workforce to about 150 at the Cape, Brian Mosdell, SpaceX's director of Florida launch operations, said. If a program to recover and recycle rocket stages works out, SpaceX could hire up to 1,000 workers, he added.



By the time the rocket parts return to the Cape, a hangar for the rocket will be complete. In the final launch plan, the rocket will be assembled in the hangar and rolled to the launch pad via a railroad track. SpaceX officials plan for rollout to take only several hours.

The Falcon 9 can be raised and lowered quickly, so the companyâ

kl90

Griffin: No Plans Beyond Next Tuesday
This just in from Eun Kim in Washington:

WASHINGTON - Michael Griffin says he has no immediate plans beyond next Tuesday, when his resignation as NASA administrator takes effect.

"I will go home and start looking for another job. I have no existing plans," Griffin told reporters Tuesday at a Space Foundation breakfast meeting.

All political appointees were asked in December to submit their resignation, effective Jan. 20, the day President-elect Obama will be sworn in.

Griffin said he plans to be on vacation that day, although he will be in communication with the agency's headquarters. He said NASA Associate Administrator Chris Scolese, the highest ranking civil servant, will assume daily operations once Griffin leaves.

Griffin would not comment on discussions he or his staff members have had with the Obama administration's transition team. Asked whether he would have liked to continue his role, he said it would be an honor to be asked.

"I would enjoy doing so, but people in my position serve at the pleasure of the president. It's the president's prerogative to appoint his person," he said. "If he determines that I'm his person, that's just fine, but it's not something I expect."

Check out video of Griffin's remarks http://www.floridatoday.com/apps ... p;videoID=996513653

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Brig. Gen. Bolton Outlines Changes
Change will come to the space industry in the form of more launches, an increased commercial emphasis and new rocket systems, Brig. Gen. Edward Bolton, commander of the 45th Space Wing, said Tuesday.

Last year, only seven rockets launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center. Including Wednesday evening's scheduled launch, nine rockets and shuttles are scheduled to blast off by May.

"That' the first thing to change," said Bolton, who was the keynote speaker at the National Space Club's monthly meeting in Cocoa Beach.

Other changes include the retirement of the space shuttle and the Air Force's retirement of the Delta II, and the introduction of SpaceX's Falcon 9. (United Launce Alliance will continue to offer the Delta II to other customers.)

"We have more systems coming onto the range and going off the range than at any time in my memory," said Bolton, whose career in the space industry spans 25 years.

SpaceX last week erected the first new rocket design in many years at Launch Complex 40. The Falcon 9 is scheduled for a summer launch, and the low-cost launch, if successful, could lure commercial satellite launches back to the U.S. from Asia and Russia.

"We've got SpaceX coming as close to a purely commercial venture for a main system as has ever been done in this country," said Bolton. "With the changing mission, the changing requirements, we also have a changing infrastructure."



The Air Force has leased Launch Complex 36 to Space Florida, which plans to lure a second commercial launch company there. Space Florida, a state funded agency, will pay for improvements to the launch pad in order to attract commercial launch companies. Formerly, said Bolton, the U.S. government directed and funded all launches from the Cape.

"Today the world is different," he said. "That footprint is going to get smaller."

Nevertheless, Bolton was upbeat about the full launch schedule for the coming year.

"Launch work is teamwork," he said. "And that's how we're going to get through these tough times."

Bolton also reminded the space industry officials that the American military depends on them.

Soldiers rely on Global Positioning Satellites, reconnaissance satellites, satellite maps and laser sighting of military targets.

"When we do this space mission, we are part of the war on terrorism - as big a part as anyone - and we've got people out there in harm's way who are counting on us to be successful," Bolton said. "So it's important to launch rockets and feel good about it."