NEW DELHI — India has entered the multibillion dollar commercial launcher market with the successful liftoff of the GSAT-14 satellite aboard its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) heavy-lift rocket fitted with an indigenous cryogenic engine.
HOUSTON — The International Space Station (ISS) Mission Management Team has cleared Orbital Sciences Corp. for a Jan. 8 launch attempt of its Antares rocket/Cygnus cargo carrier combination at 1:32 p.m. EST, if weather conditions permit. A mostly favorable launch forecast includes a low probability of cloud cover in the region that could prohibit the launch, NASA space station program spokesman Josh Byerly said. The spacecraft was transported from its hangar to the launch pad at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Jan. 5.
NEW DELHI — India’s space agency has approved a Jan. 5 launch attempt for the GSAT-14 communications satellite aboard a Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5). The indigenous, cryogenic engine-fitted GSLV-D5 will launch from the Sriharikota spaceport in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh. “A 29-hour countdown for the launch is set to commence around 11 a.m. local time on Jan. 4,” an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) scientist says.
No people are seemingly more eager and suited than Americans to leave the Earth for a new life on Mars. The notion emerges from the demographics behind the 1,058 men and women selected by Mars One this week to proceed with future rounds of a global selection process by the Dutch non-profit to identify those best suited to settle the red planet. Trips are scheduled to begin in 2025.
“All” sounding and research rockets remain controlled under the U.S. Munitions List (USML) category covering launch vehicles, ballistic and guided missiles, according to final export control reform rules announced Dec. 31.
EADS has formally rebranded as Airbus Group, retaining its Airbus commercial aircraft identity and renaming its other two divisions as Airbus Defence and Space, and Airbus Helicopters. This means the group’s Cassidian, Astrium and Airbus Military defence and space activities have now been united under the Airbus Defence and Space division. Airbus Group is also planning to change its legal status, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, although its organizational structure and operations will remain the same.
Following Boeing Commercial Airplane’s recent decision to open engineering design centers away from its traditional Seattle base, parent company Boeing has announced plans to restructure its entire Research & Technology organization by establishing research centers in Alabama, California, Missouri, South Carolina and Washington.
Studies of “Super Earth” and slightly larger Neptune-class exoplanets using the Hubble Space Telescope are providing the first atmospheric characterizations of planet classes considered among the most common in the Milky Way as a whole. Those glimpses show evidence of clouds but little to describe their composition. Super Earths are characterized as having more mass than the Earth but less than Neptune.
SCIENCE PUSH: With a congressional budget framework in hand, considering passage last month of the so-called Ryan-Murray deal in Congress, advocates for federal spending on science endeavors are ramping up calls for lawmakers to follow through with greater appropriations for Earth and space science programs. “Federal science spending has plummeted by 16% over the last three years (fiscal 2010-13), the largest decrease in decades,” said Christine McEntee, CEO of the American Geophysical Union.
HOUSTON — The six-person International Space Station is headed toward a resumption of normal operations following a pair of unscheduled late-December spacewalks by NASA astronauts to replace a degraded external thermal control system (TCS) pump module. The astronauts followed the excursions with other measures to restore cooling to all U.S. segment electrical systems deactivated in response to a Dec. 11 flow control valve failure.
DEFENSE: Global hotspots and country-by-country analyses of national priorities, budgets and programs. See pages 38-47. MILITARY AVIATION: Rivals upgrade their combat aircraft as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter begins to gain international traction. Special missions become a key part of transport market. See pages 58-67. UNMANNED AIRCRAFT: Europe finally may be getting its act together on UAS, but China and civil developments are moving faster. See page 68.
From commercial airline fleet renewal through fighter procurement challenges to industry consolidation in the face of budget pressures, 2014 looks certain to be a pivotal year for aerospace and defense. Here are 12 areas to keep an eye on. 787
BRAZILIAN SPACE: Brazil’s Visiona Tecnologia Espacial S.A. has signed contracts with Thales Alenia Space and Arianespace to build and launch a civil/military broadband communications satellite for the Brazilian government’s Geostationary Satellite Defense and Strategic Communications (SGDC) system. Visiona, a joint venture of Embraer and Brazil’s state-owned telecommunications company Telebras, is to become a satellite integrator for Brazilian space agency AEB. Near-term, the company has been tasked with integrating SGDC under Brazil’s national broadband initiative.
PARIS — The European Space Agency (ESA) launched its €940 million ($1.3 billion) Gaia star-mapping spacecraft Dec. 19 after postponing the mission one month due to technical issues involving a component flying on another satellite already in orbit. Equipped with twin silicon-carbide telescopes built around a single, 1-billion-pixel focal array, Gaia is designed to survey a billion stars in the Milky Way, providing a precise 3-D map to better understand the galaxy’s composition, formation and evolution.
MUNICH — EADS Astrium has signed an agreement with Inmarsat to resell commercial and military broadband capacity on the London-based fleet operator’s new constellation of all-Ka-band Global Xpress satellites, giving them privileged access to the globally available mobile broadband network.
LOS ANGELES — Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are poised to push the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital vehicle to new heights and speeds during the third, and longest yet, powered flight test, which is planned for the coming days. The flight, from Scaled Composites’ Mojave, Calif., base, will be the most ambitious to date and is scheduled to include the first attempt at a supersonic re-entry using the vehicle’s tail-plane feathering braking system.
