Space Industry Analysis
Dec 10, 2012
A Washington Outlook item in the Dec. 3 issue (page 23) incorrectly stated the outcome of pre-flight pressure testing on the International Space Station's Unity node. According to NASA, the 1996 tests were halted before the node structural test and flight articles reached the maximum design pressure of 23 psia “based on predefined sensor cutoff data being met.” Those strain gauges were positioned to test anticipated “high stresses on the radial port gussets,” and no cracks were discovered in the hardware by subsequent inspections, NASA says.
Dec 10, 2012
What is NASA for, anyway?
Dec 03, 2012
Engineers do not expect three small cracks that appeared in the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle pressure vessel to delay the planned first flight of NASA's next human spacecraft in 2014. The cracks in three adjacent radial ribs machined into the aft bulkhead did not go all the way through, and the vessel continued to hold pressure after the cracks appeared when pressure reached 21.6 psi, according to a NASA spokeswoman. Orion's normal operating pressure is 14.7 psi.
Dec 03, 2012
Fiscal 2014—not 2013—will be the worst year for federal contractors, including defense companies, if the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration take effect in January 2013, says Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel at the Professional Services Council. That is because sequestration will not cause a sharp drop-off in contracting opportunities until then. Federal contract spending will return to growth thereafter, but under lower top-line budgets outlined by the 2011 law known as the Budget Control Act.
Dec 03, 2012
Limiting congressional terms brings in fresh blood, but that also means a change in direction. House Republicans are capping leadership terms at six years, which means that Rep. John Mica (Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will hand over his gavel next year. Mica may have rubbed colleagues the wrong way with his continued war against the Transportation Security Administration. But he was a strong advocate for the FAA's NextGen air traffic modernization system who came up through the aviation subcommittee.
Dec 03, 2012
Landsat dataset limps into another decade
Jul 08, 2020
NASA and Boeing have completed a joint review of software and verification problems that cut short the uncrewed flight test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, resulting in 80 recommendations to be implemented prior to a repeat test targeted for late this year.
Jul 07, 2020
The Mars InSight lander’s mission team has decided to give its 6-ft.-long robot arm a rest from applying pressure into the red planet’s surface.
Jul 07, 2020
Legislators’ first draft of a fiscal 2021 budget for NASA scales back the Trump administration’s requested 12% increase to current spending levels of $22.6 billion, which would moot a 2024 crewed landing on Moon.
Jul 07, 2020
The sponsors of a global student contest to virtually design small lunar race cars have chosen four winners.
Jul 06, 2020
NASA hopes to have the Artemis Accords ready for signature by year’s end, according to Mike Gold, NASA’s acting administrator for the agency’s Office of International and Interagency Agreements.
Jul 06, 2020
NASA astronaut and cancer researcher Kate Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA from space, is hopeful for a resurgence in science and technology activities aboard the International Station when she returns to the ISS in October.
Jul 06, 2020
Although named Ofek 16, the spacecraft launched early on July 6 represents the 12th acknowledged platform in the Ofek series, with the last being the Ofek 11 in 2016. The Ofek series has previously been described as a light, agile spy satellite with a mass up to 815 lb. (369 kg) and an unclassified resolution of about 19 in. (50 cm).
Jul 05, 2020
About 4 min. into its second-stage burn, the Electron rocket “experienced an issue that caused the complete loss of the vehicle and unfortunately the payloads,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said.