Government/Military

[Satellite Today 02-02-09] NASA‘s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, its first satellite dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, is in final preparations for a Feb. 23 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the space agency announced Jan. 30     The satellite is designed to provide the first complete picture of human and natural CO2 sources, as...

NASA issued a request for proposals for the Altair lunar lander that will transport astronauts from the next-generation Orion space capsule (crew exploration vehicle) orbiting the moon down to the lunar surface. Proposals are due at Johnson Space Center in Houston by 2 p.m. CT Feb. 27. Altair would be one of three major vehicles...

Defense spending cuts in big-ticket procurement programs are inevitable, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned. The Department of Defense can’t continue indefinitely the spending increases of recent years, and Pentagon leaders must be forced as well to fund smaller-outlay programs to address counterinsurgency and terrorism types of attacks, rather than focusing mainly on confronting major...

NASA will launch a satellite that will measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and track down its source, with liftoff on a Taurus XL rocket set for 1:51 a.m. PT Feb. 23 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., NASA officials said. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), costing $278 million including two years of operation, will...

By Emelie Rutherford and Dave Ahearn The top Senate defense authorizer said missile defense programs are likely to see budget cuts in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) chairman, spoke to reporters at a press roundtable Friday The senator predicted significant cuts to weapon...

Russians Think Obama Could Kill Planned European Missile Defense Without Seeming To Cave To Moscow Russia, testing the newly-inaugurated U.S. President Obama, has anew offered a deal: if the United States caves and abandons plans to build a European Missile Defense (EMD) system, Russia won’t continue its threatened move to deploy Iskander missiles near Poland,...

Iran likely will establish some sort of controls on firing the nuclear-tipped missiles it seems bent upon developing, but a worrisome factor is that Iran has been decentralizing once-rigid control of its military units, analysts said. They spoke in a panel forum of the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. Iran has announced plans...

Defense contactors have several moves they can make to lessen the brutal impact of impending defense spending cuts, according to Loren Thompson, COO of the Lexington Institute, a think tank near the Pentagon focusing on defense and other issues. Both Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed...

Space Shuttle Discovery is poised to launch next week on the STS-119 Mission to the International Space Station. Discovery will rise at 7:32 a.m. ET Feb. 12 (Thursday) from Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle will deliver the fourth starboard truss segment to the space station, as NASA attempts to complete building...

NASA selected four teams to observe the impact of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, known as LCROSS, with the lunar surface during the mission’s search for water ice on the moon. The LCROSS mission is a small companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., this spring....