COLORADO SPRINGS — As part of a broad initiative to boost its share of the launch market and particularly the tightly contested medium commercial sector, Lockheed Martin is stepping up sales campaigns for its Atlas and Athena vehicles and appointing space and satellite marketing veteran Robert Cleave to head the business.

COLORADO SPRINGS — Lockheed Martin has begun hot-fire tests of a rocket engine designed to power a Reusable Booster System (RBS) demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force.

COLORADO SPRINGS — More than 1,800 space experts from industry and government are gathering for the 28th National Space Symposium, as NASA engineers and technicians prepare for a major shift in U.S. space activities this week. Crews at Kennedy Space Center are readying the space shuttle Discovery for its final ferry flight to Washington, where it will go on permanent display at the National Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.

HOUSTON — NASA and SpaceX, the agency’s front-running Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) partner, declared themselves ready for a late April launching of the first privately developed cargo mission to the International Space Station, following an April 16 Flight Readiness Review (FRR).

HOUSTON — NASA is looking to firm up future Mars exploration options by August, as the agency rebounds from a proposed 20% cut in the planetary exploration program that forced it to withdraw from a budding partnership with the European Space Agency (EGSA) for the ExoMars missions in 2016 and 2018. Though the long-term federal funding outlook is uncertain, NASA’s recently established Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG) is looking at perhaps $700-800 million for either a lander or an orbital mission launch in 2018 or 2020.

HEAT VISION: Lockheed Martin has completed assembly of the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the company announced April 16. The work was done at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, California, where environmental testing is about to begin. The University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin are responsible for the NIRCam instrument design, the instrument control and focal plane electronics and software.

PARIS — The Yahsat 1B (Y1B) telecom satellite owned by United Arab Emirates-based Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. is slated to launch April 24 aboard an International Launch Services Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. When Y1B enters service, it will complete the two-spacecraft Yahsat system built by EADS-Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. Al Yah, however, is now considering ordering a third satellite and is soliciting interest from numerous manufacturers, according to industry officials.

HANDED OVER: Three months after its launch, the U.S. Air Force has accepted control of WGS-4 following Boeing’s in-orbit testing of the spacecraft, which is based on the 702HP commercial satellite bus. WGS-4 will be the first Block II in operation following USAF acceptance testing. Block II spacecraft feature three times faster data rate transmissions of airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance imagery as compared to Block I. WGS-5 is in production and due for launch in 2013. The WGS is the successor to the Defense Satellite Communications System.