8.12.2005
Friday Flybys (vol. 16)
Beautiful job on the MRO launch, NASA (and Lockheed). And sometimes it's just a relief, and good fun, to launch a foamless rocket, isn't it? We'll meet back here when the spacecraft arrives at Mars in March 2006. One step closer to the Vision.
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Roger Fillion at Rocky Mountain News has an article on the shakeout in the satellite-imaging industry. He quotes the inimitable Professor Joanne Gabrynowicz, head of the National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center at the University of Mississippi: "There are only two government contracts and three companies." And, she notes, the commercial spy satellite business remains dependent on its "main client," the feds. (By the way, the 3 companies are: Orbimage, DigitalGlobe and Space Imaging which is owned by Lockheed and Raytheon).
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Here's the latest on NASA and industry testing aircraft noise-reducing technologies. And according to NASA's Vehicle Systems Program, low-noise aircraft "open up airport "buffer lands" for development and dramatically increase the quality of life -- and property values -- of millions of Americans living near some of our busiest airports." That's right, your space agency hard at work sending up not only flying machines, but also real estate prices. Hmm.
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The Defense Department has green lighted NASA's proposal to develop shuttle-derived CEV and heavy-lift launch vehicles. Why is this DoD's business? Because it is. The space transportation policy (January 2005) requires NASA and the Pentagon submit to the White House a joint recommendation on the nation's next heavy-lift vehicle.
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Yup, that ol' urban legend about EPA regulations causing the Columbia disaster (you know, the one where the EPA banned freon, which was holding the foam on) -- bears debunking again. (Courtesy of Keith Cowing at NASA Watch.)
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Xena sounds better than 2003UB313, or 10th planet. (Looks about as photogenic as, oh, Pluto.) But whatever its name, is it a planet? And whatever it is, who gets to name it? Review the IAU Rules and Recommendations Designations and Nomenclature of Celestial Objects. It's simple. (Not really.)
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Tonight: the 2005 Perseid meteor shower. Look up (if you're not too busy fact-checking these top 10 Perseid facts. (Or at least watch an old Perseid shower movie.)
