SB&T From Around The World Updates

[EarthlingX]

http://www.esa.int : Contract signing gives Galileo system its operators

26 October 2010

A few swipes of the pen in Brussels yesterday forged the latest link in the chain of Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system. ESA signed a contract with Spaceopal, the company providing ground-based services needed to operate the Galileo constellation once it has been fully deployed.

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http://www.dlr.de : Contract for operation of Galileo satellites awarded to DLR's Space Applications Company

26 October 2010

On 25 October 2010, the development of Galileo, the future European satellite navigation system, reached another important milestone. In Brussels, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Spaceopal GmbH signed a contract for the operation of 18 Galileo satellites.

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[EarthlingX]

news.xinhuanet.com : China kicks off manned space station program

English.news.cn 2010-10-27 15:09:01

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- China has formally begun its manned space station program, aiming to complete construction of a "relatively large" manned space laboratory around 2020, said a spokesman for the national manned space program.

China was aiming to develop and launch the first part of a space laboratory before 2016, focusing on breakthroughs in living conditions for astronauts and research applications, the spokesman said.

The country would develop and launch a core cabin and a second laboratory module around 2020, which would be assembled in orbit around the earth into a manned space station, he said.

"Technologies needed to build and run the space station complex and long-term manned space flight in terrestrial space will be grasped," the spokesman said.

He said the project would build on the achievements of previous projects and continue to use the Shenzhou spacecraft and Long March F carrier rocket, and their launch and landing sites.

"After the construction of the space station, China's three-step manned space program will be complete," he said, adding this would enhance the country's technological progress, innovation, comprehensive power and the nation's prestige.

The three-step strategy involved first developing the Shenzhou spaceships, and then technologies needed for docking and extra-vehicular activities, currently underway, and finally construction of the space station.

China planned to launch two unmanned space modules, Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-8, in 2011, which were expected to accomplish the country's first space docking and were regarded as an essential step toward building a space station.

Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace, would eventually be transformed into a manned space laboratory after experimental dockings with Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, with the last two carrying two or three astronauts each.

Editor: Zhang Xiang

 

[EarthlingX]

www.spacenews.com : Clash May Be Brewing over Galileo Funding Woes

Wed, 27 October, 2010

By Peter B. de Selding

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system, now confronting the financial trouble its backers have known was coming for two years, might need to be labeled “too big to fail” in the manner of the U.S financial institutions that were saved from ruin by government cash, a European parliamentarian official said Oct. 26.

Edit Herczog, a member of the European Parliament’s committee on industry, research and energy, said brandishing the threat that Galileo would simply be shut down before it reaches operational status may be the only way to win the financing the project needs.

Herczog said many parliamentarians want the negotiations on the 2011 European Commission budget to include guarantees for 2012 and 2013 that protect the Galileo project and are willing to stand firm against Europe’s finance ministers, who are already pleading empty pockets when it comes to fresh funds, Galileo aid.

“We are not going to close the 2011 budget without clear ceilings for 2012 and 2013,” Herczog said here during a two-day conference on Europe’s space policy, organized by Business Bridge Europe. “The show must go on. Do you think a minister would be willing to stand up and say he is ending the project? The fact is that if it is too big to fail, then it can’t. This is something we can build on.”

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[EarthlingX]

www.federalspace.ru : Construction of Soyuz Launch Pad at Guiana Space Center (photos)

:: 01.11.2010

Russian space industry (TSENKI, TsSKB-Progress, Lavochkin R&D and others) have completed construction and commissioning of the Soyuz launch pad at Guiana Space Center.
The maiden launch of Russian Soyuz from French Guiana is to occur in early 2011, Arianespace Chiarman Jean Ives Le Gall stated earlier.
According to him, the Soyuz’es payload is to be defined by the end of the year. The options include French Pleiades 1, Chilean Earth observation platform SSOT, the first satellite IOV for European navigation system Galileo, etc. The choice is to be made by the French party in the nearest months.
The Soyuz rocket launched from CSG will be featured by higher lifting capacity than those flown from Baikonur, due to Kourou’s location close to equator. The project has started in 2003, under the Russian French space agreement.

Roscosmos PAO

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Photo credit: CNES

 

[EarthlingX]

www.spaceref.com : European Business Innovation Centre Network and Space Florida Initiate International Market Development Program
Source: Space Florida

Posted Thursday, November 4, 2010

Munich, Germany (November 3, 2010) -The European Business Innovation Centre Network (EBN) and Space Florida last week initiated a Memorandum of Understanding to develop new market opportunities and resources for Small and Medium Aerospace Enterprises in Europe and Florida. Ongoing activities will further business development and job creation initiatives in the aerospace sector for Florida, as well as establish Florida as the threshold to American markets for European SMEs. The agreement was signed at the European Satellite Navigation Conference in Munich.

Through the Memorandum of Understanding, EBN and Space Florida will identify technology and commercial opportunities for each other's space-related SMEs including research and commercialization opportunities utilizing the International Space Station, developing collaboration networks, creating mechanisms for cross-continent incubation and business development, trade missions, events and partnership opportunities. To the furthest extent possible, EBN and Space Florida will support each others' programs and initiatives, making appropriate introductions and arranging networking opportunities with potential strategic partners and investors that might benefit from such collaborations.

"We are looking forward to extraordinary opportunities for small and medium enterprises throughout the European Business Innovation Centre Network to access American markets and share resources," said Philippe Vanrie, Chief Executive Officer of the European Business Innovation Centre Network. EBN is a non-profit organization established by the European Commission and industry leaders devoted to the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises located in more than 200 business incubators across Europe. EBN will focus their efforts on companies that are part of ESINET - a network of incubators it manages on behalf of the European Space Agency.

Frank DiBello, president of Space Florida, met with ESA and members of EBN at the Farnborough Air Show in England over the summer to investigate collaborating with the space technology incubators to enhance access to European markets and resources for Florida small businesses. "Connecting business to several key European Markets through well-networked incubators will provide extraordinary access to markets and resources never before possible for small and medium enterprises," he said. Space Florida is aggressively guiding Florida's aerospace transition to serve traditional space markets and downstream applications for the state's aerospace and related target industries.

The goals of the agreement serve the missions each organization has for aerospace related business development. For EBN and its ESA incubator companies, growth and development in Florida as a threshold to American markets is an exciting potential to offer small companies throughout Europe in its ESINET partner incubators. For Florida, the program is part of a new international effort on the part of Space Florida to assist all Florida aerospace businesses capture key initiatives and markets during the next decade that will ensure the state is a global aerospace power, growing three times its current size over the next decade.

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[EarthlingX]

http://www.bbc.co.uk : UK space sector earnings now at £7.5bn

8 November 2010 Last updated at 07:43 GMT

By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

UK space companies have defied the recession, growing by an average of 10% a year from 2007.
So says a report from the Oxford Economics consultancy, which predicts the growth will continue in 2010.
The space business is now said to have a turnover worth some £7.5bn, with employment rising at about 15% a year.
The best performing areas are in so-called downstream activities - services such as satellite broadcasting and telecommunications.
But even the upstream sector - such as satellite manufacturing - recorded a very healthy performance, averaging annual growth of 3% over the period 2006/07 to 2008/09.
The latest "Size and Health" report was commissioned by the UK Space Agency and is based on a survey of the activities of 260 leading companies.

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[EarthlingX]

www.deccanherald.com : Curbs on DRDO, ISRO go

Mumbai, Nov 6, DHNS:

US President Barack Obama on Saturday made the much-awaited announcement of taking important Indian defence and space research institutions like the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Hyderabad-based Bharat Dynamics Limited off the high-tech ban list.

Speaking at an Indo-US business meeting, Obama said the “dual-use” rules, by which high-tech exports by American manufacturers to the DRDO and ISRO are banned, would be amended and updated. The “dual use” refers to technology that can be utilised for both civilian and defence purposes.

Another equally significant announcement that came from the American side was that the US will also back India’s bid for a membership of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and three similar control regimes, which will enable India to get the “dual-use” technology from member countries. Such transactions will be subject to rules of individual nations. It also means India will have a say in framing export control rules.

Although the announcements were made to make it easier for the US companies to do more business with Indian institutions and firms, it will please India nevertheless as many governments have been pressing the US to ease export controls and remove the DRDO and ISRO from the banned list.

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[EarthlingX]

www.spacenews.com : China Great Wall Places Bulk Order for Rockets, Satellites

Wed, 17 November, 2010

By Peter B. de Selding

PARIS — China Great Wall Industry Corp. on Nov. 16 signed agreements with the manufacturer of China’s Long March rockets and the builder of China’s telecommunications satellites covering the construction of 20 Long March 3A vehicles and eight satellite platforms, the company said.

The bulk-purchase deals, which carry a combined value of 15 billion Chinese yuan Renminbi ($2.26 billion), cover deliveries for the next five years and are intended to further shorten the time between the signing of a contract and the delivery of a satellite into orbit, Beijing-based China Great Wall said.

The eight satellites ordered from the China Academy of Space Technology are all DFH-4 platforms. The DFH-4 is China’s principal telecommunications satellite model and the one used to win export orders.

The 20 Long March rockets covered by the order will be variants of the Long March 3A, which is the basic three-stage vehicle used to transport telecommunications satellites into geostationary-transfer orbit, with the weight of the satellite payload and its orbital destination governing how many liquid strap-on boosters are added to provide more power.

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[EarthlingX]

www.ukspaceagency.bis.gov.uk : UK Space Agency at the IAA Heads of Agency Summit

Page last updated: 19 November 2010 by the UK Space Agency

Unique event gathers thirty space agencies in Washington DC

On the 17th November, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) brought together many of the world's space agencies at a unique event in Washington DC to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary and to highlight the role of international cooperation in space activities.

The Heads of Space Agencies Summit was one of the largest gatherings of space agency senior staff ever held. In preparation for the Summit, the IAA received inputs from its academicians, other experts and space agency representatives on the subject of enhancing global collaboration in the following four areas: human spaceflight; planetary robotic exploration; climate change and disaster management. Based upon these inputs the IAA issued a Summit Declaration(PDF) that was unanimously welcomed by the heads of space agencies.

The event was attended by the UK Space Agency in its year of creation and meeting participants heard a message from Chief Executive Dr. David Williams (PDF) in which the close alignment between the Agency's policies and the Summit Declaration was highlighted.

www.federalspace.ru : Russia to Contribute into Space Situational Awareness Programs – Anatoly Perminov

:: 20.11.2010

Russia is in position to contribute into space situational awareness programs, Russian Federal Space Agency Head Anatoly Perminov stated. Perminov, with other officials, took part in the Summit of the space agency heads held under the aegis of International Academy of Astronautics in Washington..
Roscosmos Head emphasized that "natural disaster response capabilities can be enhanced by advanced Russian natural and industrial disaster space monitoring system Kanopus-V.
According to Perminov, IGMAS project (international global natural and industrial emergency aerospace monitoring system) proposed by Russia as an international initiative, has “good prospective”. "IGMAS implementation, together with similar international systems GEOSS and UN’s SPYDER, is in line with the priorities of Russia’s foreign policy", Roscosmos Head concluded.

www.federalspace.ru : Roscosmos and NASA Negotiate Missions to Distant Space - Roscosmos

:: 20.11.2010

Space agencies of Russia and US, Roscosmos and NASA, discuss space missions to distant space, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov stated at the Summit of the space agency heads held under the aegis of International Academy of Astronautics in Washington.
Perminov and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who both lead Space Cooperation Working Group in the framework of the Russian-US President Commission, met in Washington to hold the third meeting of the Working Group.
According to Roscosmos Head, Russian proposals concerning future cooperation “had been submitted to NASA”. The list includes different options, including missions to LLO and asteroids.
The agenda also covered future cooperation in the Russia-initiated Mercury landing program and development of a nuclear propulsion system.
Nuclear propulsion systems are considered for large-scale human missions, not for small spacecraft which could use other type of propulsion – ionic engines or solar wind energy. The system is unique, as no other propulsion in the world is made on the basis of similar principles.

 

[Zi]

I'm just curious here. I am an American about to return to the states. I live close to the Zhuhai national airport... the site of the biannual airshow that is the largest aerospace show/exhibition in China. It is currently going on and I was wondering if there is ever any media coverage of it in the States. I have never seen any and the show is a very large one attended by nations and companies from all over the world. I have never, however, heard of an American company in attendance or found an english story reporting it. Do you know if what is purported to be the largest aerospace show in Asia is reported in the states at all?

 

[EarthlingX]

I saw it only on Roscosmos page.

If you have a link or two, it will not hurt There were also at least a couple of air-shows in EU and USA lately, so perhaps it's a matter of 'info congestion'.

Perhaps drop a couple of links in Aviation ?

 

[EarthlingX]

Here is something : Airshow China 2010 ShowNews by Aviation Week.

 

[EarthlingX]

FlightGlobal has a site dedicated to Air Show China - Zhuhai 2010.

Plenty of videos on Google.

One of the aircraft :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hAwOobbgZQ[/youtube]

Bloomberg | November 16, 2010

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Margaret Conley reports from the Zhuhai air show in Southern China. Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China yesterday announced its first 100 C919 passenger-plane orders, breaking Airbus SAS and Boeing Co.'s stranglehold on the world's second-largest market for new aircraft. (Source: Bloomberg)

Wiki : Comac C919


Another one :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcM4cs0Jc2Q[/youtube]

ismailshahsagar | November 16, 2010

This is Indigenously Pakistani JF-17 Fighter Jet of PAF doing stunts in China air show Zhuhai 2010.

Wiki : JF-17 Thunder (very long and detailed article)


French presence :

[vimeo]16961275[/vimeo]

Cooperation between France and China in the Aviation and Space industries is not new: it started in the 1960s, with helicopters especially. In the last few years, the multi-billion euro contracts between both countries have intensified. China is now the third biggest airplane market in the world and French companies are quite aware of this: at the Zhuhai Air Show, a total of 18 French companies are present this year.

RIA news report :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O38qzYepaqE[/youtube]

newsupload2010 | November 18, 2010

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.federalspace.ru : IAA Summit Declaration

:: 23.11.2010

International Academy of Astronautics
SUMMIT DECLARATION
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Washington D.C., USA

IAA Introductory Remarks
On November 17, 2010, leaders of 30 space agencies from around the world gathered in Washington, D.C. for the International Academy of Astronautics’ (IAA) Heads of Space Agencies Summit. In preparation for the Summit, the IAA received inputs from Academicians, other experts and space agency representatives on the subject of enhancing global collaboration in the following four areas: human spaceflight, planetary robotic exploration, climate change and disaster management. Based upon these inputs the IAA sets forth below its findings and recommendations that were welcomed by the heads of space agencies.

IAA Summit Declaration

Human Spaceflight

Human missions to the surface of Mars are the long-term goal of the space exploration in view of the scientific interest and strategic prospects for humankind. In order to prepare such missions and in line with the Global Exploration Strategy, the IAA recommends the following for space agencies’ consideration:
-Continue to support the work of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, which is formulating plans for global space exploration efforts
-Acknowledge the need of maintaining human space exploration in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and of extending it in a stepwise approach to those destinations where humans may one day live and work e.g. Moon, Near Earth Objects… building on a carefully planned series of robotic precursor missions
-Recognize the importance of the International Space Station as an integral part of the Exploration initiative and of its utilisation for the benefit of all humankind
-Support the development of a common interoperability policy for LEO and beyond including the implementation of common standards and interfaces
-Welcome the development of enabling technologies required to achieve exploration goals, while recognizing the fact that these technologies can also be used in supporting pathways to assist in resolving some of the grand challenges the world is facing, such as energy and environmental issues
-Stress the importance of coordinating research on human factors in preparation for space missions beyond LEO
-Acknowledge the need to define an integrated public engagement plan to support a sustainable Human Exploration Program

-Invite new and emerging space faring nations to cooperate in Human Spaceflight activities in view of the benefits involved and in order to ensure that this becomes a global endeavour.

Planetary Robotic Exploration

Humanity’s understanding about the origin and evolution of our Solar System and our search for signs of life within it have expanded enormously since the dawn of the space age through eyes of ever-more capable robotic explorers. We have reached the stage at which our robotic explorers must be even more sophisticated and capable, and they must operate successfully in a much wider range of environments throughout the solar system if we are to answer the next set of compelling scientific questions, many of which are directed at the age-old question “Did life arise elsewhere outside the Earth?” A program of significantly expanded breadth and depth will be required that is well beyond the means of any given nation to pursue alone. The IAA recommends the following for space agencies’ consideration:
-Expand efforts to work together to achieve the next leap in understanding of our Solar System and to pave the way for human exploration
-Focus scientific exploration goals to be mutually supportive, while recognizing the competitive aspect of scientific exploration
-Strive to make available opportunities for international collaboration such as through shared science teams and science instruments, in ways that do not compromise the host agency’s primary goals for their individual space missions
-Explore fruitful collaborations in which two or more agencies share significant joint responsibility for missions with multiple flight elements
-Seek ways to apply robotic explorers to further pave the way for expanded human exploration through attainment of critical knowledge of relevant destinations and/or validation of technologies required for human exploration.

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