Inspired by two Roman palaces, the National Building Museum was constructed in the 1880s with the dual purpose of housing the U.S. Pension Bureau and providing “a suitably grand space for Washington's social and political functions.” On March 7, nearly 300 aviation and aerospace luminaries from around the globe gathered in the cavernous building for Aviation Week's 56th annual Laureate Awards.
In a budget environment where it is hard to find money for experimental aircraft, the 2013 Laureate for Aeronautics and Propulsion goes to a program that used a modest but sustained investment in ground demonstrations to mature technology, culminating in wind-tunnel tests of a model larger and more complex than many X-planes.
If the U.S. Congress manages to pass a new NASA authorization this year—certainly not a sure thing given the riptides of ideological debate roiling Capitol Hill— there's a chance that it will order some new organizational changes at the space agency. A growing refrain in the relevant congressional committees and across the U.S. space community finds post-shuttle NASA dangerously adrift, with its sails in need of patching and weak hands on the tiller.
First images from the Landsat 8 spacecraft include this true-color scene of Boulder, Colo., where Ball Aerospace (marked) built the Operational Land Imager that collected data for the imager, along with the cryocooler for its Thermal Infrared Sensor. The latter instrument was built at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
The annual presentation of Laureates by Aviation Week recognizes intellect, discovery and heroism, and the organizations and programs that cultivate them in the aerospace and defense sector are honored with the Workforce Laureate. In the running for the Workforce Laureate this year were programs that are designed to attract a workforce to aerospace, as well as the individuals who continue to push this effort despite budget cuts and economic issues.
Contract-tower program supporters are appealing to the FAA to limit the number of airport tower closures set to start April 7 due to across-the-board budget cuts. Senate leadership rejected the efforts of Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) to keep the FAA from closing up to 189 contract towers and restore funding for the program in a short-term spending bill that passed Congress last week.
Each year, in addition to naming Laureates, Aviation Week honors outstanding cadets at U.S. military academies as Tomorrow's Leaders. The awards are sponsored by BAE Systems. This year, four cadets were named and recognized at the Laureates gala by Aviation Week President Greg Hamilton.
The final chapter has apparently opened in the turf war among national security agencies over which should control the most prominent weapon system in use since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Thales Alenia Space, the prime contractor for 24 second-generation Globalstar communications satellites, says it could conclude a deal with the mobile satellite services provider before summer for six additional next-generation spacecraft to be financed with backing from the French export credit agency Coface.
The UAE’s Yahsat Ka-band satellite system has been certified as compatible with the U.S. Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) Ka-band network, and the Boeing Commercial Satellite Services division will sell military and civil Ka-band for the Abu Dhabi-based fleet operator Al Yah Satellite Communications. Under the agreement, users of the Boeing-built WGS network will be able to seamlessly switch between the 10-satellite WGS network being deployed for the U.S. military and allied nations and Yahsat, says Al Yah Satellite Deputy CEO Masood M. Sharif Mahmood.
The NASA-led International Space Station mission management team has approved a March 25 departure and splashdown for the SpaceX Dragon Commercial Resupply-2 capsule in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja, Calif. The unpiloted Dragon is scheduled to descend with just less than 3,000 lb. of research gear, including preserved medical specimens collected from the station’s astronauts, samples from biology and biotechnology experiments and equipment in need of refurbishment.
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed flight qualification of the Merlin 1D engine, clearing a final hurdle in the planned operational debut of the more powerful engine on the upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket in June.
HOUSTON — Greatly enhanced gravity maps of the Moon, compiled from measurements made by NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) mission probes, have already made their way into the navigational models used by active lunar missions as well as those available to project teams preparing for unpiloted or future human missions, according to Grail project scientists.
SPACE TURNDOWN: Government spending worldwide on outer space peaked last year at $72.9 billion, but Euroconsult expects such spending to drop due to global fiscal austerity pressures, with improvement not expected before 2015.
The FAA says it will identify technical, political, legal and operational methods to protect aviation users from intentional spoofing and jamming of GPS signals in a report to be issued in September. Results of the one-year study, initiated by the FAA in September 2012 and carried out by a government/industry team, are critical to the agency’s planned reliance on GPS as the navigation and surveillance backbone of the next-generation air transportation system (NextGen) program.
NEW DELHI — India plans to loft its first navigation and timing satellite in June, the country’s top scientist says. The first satellite of the seven-spacecraft Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) will be launched on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C22) from the spaceport at Sriharikota off the coast of the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, according to the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), K. Radhakrishnan. Once launched, IRNSS-1 will be tested in orbit for nearly four months.
