ASTEROID ASSISTANCE: More countries should participate in the activities of the International Space Station, and the Obama administration would welcome international support for NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission, a U.S. official told the International Space Exploration Forum recently. Moreover, governments should explore more ways to encourage entrepreneurial ventures in space, as well as do “much more” to defend Earth from near-earth objects and space debris, according to remarks by Deputy Secretary of State William Burns.
ATK’s Solar Electric Propulsion MegaFlex solar array design is in line for thermal vacuum deployment testing at NASA’s Glenn Research Center Plum Brook Station this month, following a full deployment demonstration at the company’s Goleta, Calif., facilities in December.
PARIS — Europe’s comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft emerged from 31 months of deep-space slumber Jan. 20 to reestablish communications with Earth. The €1.3 billion ($1.76 billion) European Space Agency (ESA) mission made contact with NASA’s 70-meter-dia. ground station at Goldstone, Calif., 48 min. into a nail-chewing hour-long window that opened at 12:30 p.m. eastern.
While the U.S. Navy still plans heavy investments in its more traditional fleet of destroyers, cruisers and carriers, top service officers are touting new classes of surface ships meant to carry more assets — especially aircraft — to the fight. The Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB), Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) and Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) are all getting quite a bit of attention from Navy officials.
The National Space Society says it “strongly opposes” passage of a U.S. House of Representatives bill (HR 3625) pushed prominently by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). The bill would exempt the International Space Station, heavy-lift Space Launch System and Orion crew vehicle from termination without proactive congressional approval, as well as free $507 million in funds held to cover termination liability costs under a contract interpretation by NASA’s Democratic management of the Anti-Deficiency Act.
LONDON — Airbus Helicopters is carrying out final tests on an upgrade to its real-time monitoring of the EC225’s bevel gear vertical shaft, which caused the type to be grounded for nine months during 2012 and 2013.
Analysis of temperature and other data from more than 1,000 meteorological stations worldwide has found 2013 was the seventh-warmest year since 1880, adding more evidence to the long-term rise in global warming, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. Nine of the 10 warmest years in the 134 years covered by the analysis have occurred since 2000, and the 10th was 1998. The latest GISS analysis finds 2013 tied with 2009 and 2006 in global temperature averages.
A parachute-deployment test of NASA’s Orion crew capsule Jan. 16 added another level of complexity to the preflight work that must be done before the vehicle’s Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), atop a Delta IV rocket in September.
Space-science units of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences are planning two meetings this year designed to bring young scientists from the two countries together for discussions on space astronomy and solar and space physics. The U.S. Space Studies Board and the Chinese academy’s National Space Science Center set up meetings in Beijing and Los Angeles for space scientists under 40 to “build informal bridges between the space-science communities in China and the United States,” according to a joint announcement.
NAVY Bechtel Plant Machinery Inc., Monroeville, Pa., is being awarded a $593,104,854 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for naval nuclear propulsion components. The work will be performed in Monroeville, Pa. (66%), and Schenectady, N.Y. (34%). No completion date or additional information is provided on naval nuclear propulsion program contracts. Fiscal 2014 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-14-C-2101).
NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency’s lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Navy needs to explore more ways to use simulation technology to help qualify its officers and sailors, says U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Thomas Copeman, commander of the Naval Surface Force and U.S. Pacific Naval Surface Force. Current simulation technology is helping train the service’s personnel more efficiently and affordably for combat and other operations for ships, such as DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyers, Copeman said Jan. 15 at a media briefing during the 2014 annual Surface Navy Association Symposium.
PARIS — Europe’s nearly one-year delay in finalizing the design of a service module expected to fly on NASA’s Orion multipurpose crew exploration vehicle will not hold up a planned test flight of the capsule slated for 2017, says European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain. “I have promised NASA that the delay in the service module preliminary design review (PDR) will not lead to a delay in delivery,” Dordain told journalists at an annual meeting where he detailed the agency’s €4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) budget for 2014.
LONDON — The cost of damage to U.K. military aircraft caused by a freak hailstorm at Kandahar AB in Afghanistan is likely to top £10 million ($16.3 million), defense ministry officials have revealed. The incident had a major effect on U.K. in-theater air operations.
LONDON — Switzerland will hold a national referendum in May on whether the country should purchase the Saab JAS-39E Gripen fighter. Voters will go to the polls on May 18 to determine if the purchase of 22 Gripens—to replace the country’s aging Northrop F-5 Tigers—should go ahead. The referendum was called after opponents of the deal collected more than 50,000 signatures to force a national vote on the 3.1 billion Swiss franc ($3.3 billion) program.
OMNIBUS PASSED: In overwhelming and unusually rapid fashion, U.S. lawmakers have passed the fiscal 2014 omnibus appropriations bill. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill before Jan. 19, averting another government shutdown and funding the government through September. The almost evenly divided Senate passed the measure late Jan. 16 by 72 to 26, with 17 Republicans joining 55 majority Democrats and Independents in favor. The House of Representatives passed the bill Jan. 15 by 359 to 67, with just 64 majority Republicans and three Democrats voting against it.
With this month’s crash of a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet, the family of F-18 Hornets and Super Hornets continues to lead U.S. Navy aircraft in terms of total Class A mishap costs, an Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) analysis of service accident data shows.
