United Space Alliance (USA), NASA’s Houston-based space shuttle prime contractor, laid off 157 workers on Sept. 28 as program retirement and transition activities wind down. The losses — 121 personnel in the Cape Canaveral area; 35 in Houston; and one in Huntsville, Ala. — leave the space operations company with a workforce of 2,263. More layoffs are planned for December and January, though the numbers are not clear since disposal of other shuttle program assets and records is continuing, USA spokeswoman Tracy Yates said Oct. 1.

LONDON — Initial feasibility studies of a high-speed passenger aircraft designed to fly from Paris to Tokyo in less than 3 hr. have so far unearthed no major environmental obstacles to development, researchers say.

Challenges include culture of optimism, technical obstacles and unstable budgets

BRUSSELS — Astrium Services will procure military satcom services on behalf of five European nations as part of a three-year agreement with the European Defense Agency (EDA), the first such contract awarded under EDA’s new European Satellite Communications Procurement Cell (ESCPC) initiative.

TOURS, France — An Australian-led high-speed propulsion research team is preparing to begin assembly of a scramjet-powered hypersonic demonstrator, following design changes to improve vehicle stability during its upcoming attempt at a Mach 8 flight test.

WALLOPS OPS: NASA has authorized Orbital Sciences Corp. to begin operations at the new launch pad built for its Antares rocket at the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., although the state-owned facility still awaits space-agency certification for launches. Orbital and NASA plan to use Antares and the unmanned Cygnus capsule for commercial cargo deliveries to the International Space Station, with a first flight tentatively scheduled before the end of the year.

CENTER DIRECTORS: Two NASA field centers will have new directors now that former Marshall Space Flight Center Robert Lightfoot has taken over as the No. 3 manager at agency headquarters. Lightfoot, who has been acting associate administrator since March 5, will take on that job permanently. Stennis Space Center Director Patrick Scheuermann will move to Marshall as director, and his deputy at Stennis, Richard Gilbrech, becomes the director of that field center. All three changes were effective last week.

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