Government/Military

NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) will join forces to launch an observatory that will plumb the mysteries of dark energy, which is found throughout the universe. The two agencies signed a memorandum of understanding launching the Joint Dark Energy Mission, or JDEM. It will feature the first space-based observatory designed specifically to understand...

The BAE Systems Nulka anti-missile asset was installed on its 100th Navy ship, BAE announced. Nulka is a rocket propelled active decoy designed to lure anti-ship missiles away from the intended target. Originally conceived in Australia, and developed under a joint Australian and U.S. program, it provides warships with all-weather defense against anti-ship missiles, bringing...

[Satellite Today 11-24-08] Integral Systems Europe signed a yearly renewable contract to support the Polar Mission Control System (MCS) over the next 15 years with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the company announced Nov. 24.      Integral Systems Europe delivered the MCS as a subcontractor to Thales Alenia Space. The...

Alan Stern Resigned From NASA This Year NASA space hardware programs frequently run over budget, and the space agency should keep a tighter rein on spending, a former NASA science programs leader asserted in The New York Times yesterday. S. Alan Stern, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist who was the NASA associate administrator of the...

[Satellite News 11-24-08] Space Exploration Technology Corp.’s (SpaceX) Hawthorne, Calif. facility is a remodeled Boeing hangar where engines for the 747 aircraft were once manufactured. The only elements left from the Boeing days are the track-mounted cranes dangling from the ceilings, but those cranes work on a different kind of engine now.     SpaceX Director...

The abort motor for the next-generation U.S. spaceship Orion successfully test-fired. Once Orion begins manned flights to space in the middle of the next decade, if a crisis occurs in the Ares rocket launching the Orion space capsule, the abort motor — a rocket mounted above the capsule — would fire, lifting the capsule up...

President-elect Obama must continue the search for a Middle East peace accord, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today, as he prepared to meet this evening with President Bush at the White House. Olmert earlier met with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to stress the importance of a continued peace process. Israel has been attacked...

Endeavour Mission Doubles Space Station Crew Capacity, Improves Solar Array Mechanism, May Provide Water Supply Solution After 2010 Fourth And Final Spacewalk Performed Today Space Shuttle Endeavour will wrap up the STS-126 Mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle orbiter vehicle lands Saturday at Kennedy Space Station. Meanwhile, its crew is working hard...

[Satellite Today 11-21-08] MCL Inc., a Miteq company, received a $1.4 million contract to design and develop an airborne Ka-band high power traveling wave tube amplifier for the U.S. Air Force, the company announced Nov. 20.     The product is expected to compliment and enhance current military airborne communication technology. The contract is sponsored by...

[Satellite Today 11-21-08]  The European Space Agency (ESA) signed contracts with OHB-System in Germany and Hispasat in Spain for ESA’s small GEO program, the space agency announced Nov. 20.     The program is intended to develop a general purpose small geostationary satellite platform that will enable European industry to develop technologies to meet the needs...