STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Florida’s longtime Democratic senator and two recent tea party additions to the state’s congressional delegation are teaming to have the Space Coast designated a special zone in need of extra government assistance. The would-be Shuttle Workforce Revitalization Act, cosponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R), looks to designate Brevard County as a “historically underutilized business zone,” or HUBZone. The designation gives small businesses in areas deemed economically challenged preference when the government doles out contracts.

Jilted by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to press ahead with its ExoMars program in partnership with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which plans to contribute Proton launch vehicles and a new entry, descent and landing system to the ambitious two-pronged Mars mission in 2016 and 2018. Russia’s arrival as the savior of ExoMars is not without cost, however, as ESA now will have to fund development of a rover for the 2018 mission that NASA had previously planned to share.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — NASA should cut back on the breadth of its aeronautics research to free up funds within a flat budget to return to X-plane flight research, says a new report by the National Research Council (NRC). At only 3% of the space agency’s budget, aeronautics research funding is spread too thinly and unable to advance projects to the flight stage, which is vital to convincing industry and regulators to adopt new technologies, the report says

An Astrium-built Russian satellite stranded in a useless orbit by a Proton launch mishap last summer may be salvaged to provide broadband satellite links to scientists working in Antarctica, according to one of the effort’s organizers. A working group of Russian agencies and companies with a stake in the disposition of Express-AM4 will decide later this month what to do with the spacecraft, which has been declared a total loss by its insurance underwriter (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 12, 2011).

U.S. Air Force planners expect commercial communications satellites to have an ever-larger role in the operation of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) as war-on-terror funding dwindles and the U.S. military’s focus shifts to other theaters, including Africa, Latin America and the U.S. border regions.

HOUSTON — Robonaut 2, NASA’s five-year-old collaboration with automaker GM, has generated a prototype Human Grasp Assist device, or Robo-Glove, that shows promise as an aide to manufacturers and their workers by lowering the risk of costly repetitive-stress injuries as well as to spacewalking astronauts by enhancing their grip.

Under pressure from Gulf Coast state politicians, U.S. Air Force leadership confirmed they are reconsidering their plan to move C-130s to Montana from Texas. And the Air Force plans to wrap up its acquisition strategy for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program this spring, in a way that allows for increased competition. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz offered these updates to the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee during a March 14 hearing.

Some astronauts who have spent extended periods in microgravity on the International Space Station (ISS) have developed abnormalities in their eyes and pituitary gland/brain connectors that are similar to a type of intracranial hypertension that occurs on the ground. The finding may help earthbound physicians understand what causes the potentially serious condition, but it already has NASA flight surgeons pondering how they can mitigate it when astronauts travel into deep space.