Show Me The Space-Money!

In a profoundly optimistic and interesting set of prognostications, Spaceflight Now reports on the outlook for the space industry.  In short, most of it looks mighty fine.  Here are some of the highlights forecast for the world-wide space industry. Regarding meteorological and terrestrial observation satellites: Revenues at $1B in 2009 and could quadruple in a few [...]

She Blinded Me With Lasers!

New Scientist reports that astronomers are concerned about restrictions on the use of lasers.  Astronomers use lasers to focus their telescopes.  The lasers, which are needed to adjust the adaptive optics of the telescopes, also appear to be capable of disrupting certain satellite sensors. Air Force Space Command has “restricted when and where US observatories can [...]

South Korean Space Failure

The link reports half the two-piece payload fairing did not separate from the second stage as it should have. The extra weight turned the effort into another sea-sat (maybe a land sat). The fairing issue sounds analogous to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory failure, which rode on an OSC provided Taurus XL.

Tanks For The Memories. Kenya Dig It?

Piracy has been joined by intelligence in the fee-for-service realm. Anyone, or any nation-state, with a credit card now has an excellent chance to buy top-notch overheads. Add analysis in the form of people paying attention and bam! you have intel.

Satellite, Writ Large

The 15,000-plus pound TerreStar satellite, about the size of a small school bus, is now on orbit. According to the satellite’s manufacturer, Loral, over a million man-hours went into its creation. The satellite is designed to serve North America with “blended” terrestrial and space based communications and provide better service than either method alone.