To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Oct. 30 - Nov. 1 — 15th Biennial Helicopter Military Operations Technology Specialists' Meeting, Crowne Plaza Williamsburg, Fort Magaruder, Va. For more information go to www.vtol.org/events/helmot-xv. Oct. 30 - 31 — 2012 Coast Guard Innovation Expo, Virginia Beach Convention Center, Virginia Beach, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.org/exhibits/3230.

ANOTHER HURDLE: The proposed $1 billion sale of Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) to Canada’s MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) has cleared its antitrust review at the U.S. Department of Justice, SSL parent Loral Space & Communications announced Oct. 26. Loral now expects that any further requirements for the deal, “all of which are within the parties’ control, will be satisfied.” The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States cleared the sale last month. SS/L has said it expects the transaction to close in the fourth quarter.

HOUSTON — Spacewalking U.S. and Japanese astronauts plan to re-activate an older thermal control system radiator as part of a strategy to circumvent a small but growing ammonia leak on the International Space Station’s oldest solar power truss. The six- to seven-hour outing by NASA’s Sunita Williams, the station’s commander, and Akihiko Hoshide is scheduled for Nov. 1 at 8:15 a.m. EDT and will take the two astronauts to the far port side of the orbiting science lab’s 356-ft.-long solar power truss.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (Ladee) is ready for environmental testing at NASA’s Ames Research Center, following installation of the last of its three instruments.

NASA AUDIT: House Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Paul Broun (R-Ga.) is asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to request a review of NASA’s export control policies, in response to recent allegations that Simon “Pete” Worden, director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, allowed foreign nationals access to information protected under International Traffic in Arms Regulations. In an Oct.

The space industry is finding it can’t afford to wait for the government to come calling with new business.

Lander visit lunar south pole by 2019 if ESA approves funding for continued development

Blue Origin has tested the pusher-type launch-abort system it developed with NASA funding, boosting a full-scale mockup of its suborbital crew vehicle to an altitude of 2,307 ft. at its test range near Van Horn, Texas, and recovering the capsule by parachute. The Oct. 19 test, announced Oct. 22, was conducted under a Space Act Agreement for the second round of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) effort to spark a commercial industry for transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit.