As Europe and China prepare to talk potential International Space Station (ISS) cooperation in Paris this month, NASA’s top official is tempering expectations, absent approval from Congress and all five nations supporting the orbiting outpost.

The future research productivity of the International Space Station (ISS) rests on the delayed startup of U.S. commercial resupply missions within the next year, experts from NASA and the agency’s oversight panels told the House Science, Space and Technology Committee March 28.

Nearing the midpoint of its 254-day journey, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has successfully carried out the second of six planned trajectory correction maneuvers, fine-tuning the rover’s course toward an Aug. 6 landing on the red planet within the scientifically promising Gale Crater. All 10 of MSL’s science instruments have been successfully activated and checked out as well.

SANTIAGO, Chile — Embraer is hoping to secure two key Brazilian government contracts this year as it looks to expand its defense and security activities. One is the Sisfron domestic security program, estimated at $4 billion, for which Embraer wants to serve as prime contractor and integrator for diverse elements such as radars, unmanned aircraft, communications and other systems, says Luiz Carlos Aguiar, CEO of Embraer Defense and Security, at the Fidae air show here.

RECOGNIZED: Aviation Week Senior Editor for Space Frank Morring Jr. will receive the National Space Club’s Press Award on March 30 in Washington. The club, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting U.S. space activity and interests, will bestow the 2011 award to Morring at its annual Robert H. Goddard Memorial Dinner.

Lockheed Martin officials acknowledge that they have learned some things from the company’s loss to rival Boeing of a $3.5 billion contract to continue managing the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) anti-ballistic missile system — and they are likely to apply this knowledge to some forthcoming work as the company continues to try to expand its footprint in that market.

ASTRONAUT HEALTH: NASA has granted a five-year, $120 million extension of its long-running cooperative agreement with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) for studies of the health risks associated with long-duration human spaceflight. The pact includes investigations of proposed countermeasures and their wider application to traditional medicine. Announced March 23, the extension brings to $484.2 million the potential value of the initial collaboration forged in March 1997. The latest of four extensions takes effect Oct. 1.

Controllers are checking out Intelsat 22 after its successful launch on a Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 25. Liftoff was at 8:10 a.m. EDT (6:10 p.m. local time). After a 15-hr., 30-min. mission, the rocket’s Breeze M upper stage released the satellite into a supersynchronous transfer orbit (SSTO) with a 65,000-km (40,400-mi.) apogee. Once operational in May, the spacecraft will replace Intelsat 709 at 72 deg. East and is expected to have an 18-year service life.