Wallops To Be Center Of Historic Launches This Month. The AP (9/6, Dunn) continues coverage of today’s upcoming launch of the LADEE spacecraft, the “first moonshot ever” from the Wallops Flight Facility and the state of Virginia, as well as the first lunar mission to focus on the moon’s atmosphere. NASA program scientist Sarah Noble said, “Sometimes, people are a little taken aback when we start talking about the lunar atmosphere because, right, we were told in school that the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. ... It does. It’s just really, really thin.” According to the article, NASA’s manned program was “hot on the lunar trail” when the mission was first announced, but today has set its sights for other locales like Mars and asteroids, a topic that is being debated. The article also briefly notes how Wallops will launch Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket to the ISS later this month. The Newport News (VA) Daily Press (9/6, Dietrich) also reports on the historic nature of this month’s launches for the region. Doug Voss, Wallops’ project manager, said, “It’s historic not just from an emotional or a factual standpoint. ... But also important that this is a time of significant growth for Wallops in terms of the types of missions it’s launching. Wallops has been around for 70 years now, launching rockets. We predate NASA. We haven’t always been in the limelight.” Wallops spokesperson Keith Koehler said that so far there is a 95% chance of good weather for Friday’s launch that has brought 120 reporters to the region. The Baltimore Sun (9/6, Dance), Montgomery (PA) News (9/6, Burns), Lynchburg (VA) News & Advance (9/6, Koerting), Redwood City-Woodside (CA) Patch (9/5, Klindt), NPR (9/5, Memmott) “The Two-Way” blog, SPACE (9/6, Kramer), and another SPACE (9/5, Rao) article report on ways the public can view the event and participate in NASA events ahead of the launch. ISS “Well Supplied” If December Cargo Runs Delayed. Space News (9/6, Leone, Subscription Publication), in continuing coverage of Orbital Science’s first cargo run to the ISS later this month, reports the company was “put on notice” by NASA ISS program manager Michael Suffredini, who said that it may need to fly again to the ISS in December because SpaceX will not be ready “in December, or even January time frame.” The article notes that even if neither company’s rockets launch in December, the ISS is “well provisioned.” Suffredini added, “It’s time for us really to start having flights on a regular basis. ... I’m looking for this next year, 2014, to be the year when we fully settle in, where we have regular Orbital flights and regular SpaceX flights and we actually see them, give or take, within a few weeks of when we expect to have them.” Cygnus Spacecraft Named To Honor Low. collectSPACE (9/6, Pearlman) reports the first Cygnus spacecraft that will be sent to the ISS has been named after astronaut G. David Low, who passed away in 2008 while overseeing the program for Orbital. Meanwhile, NASA COTS program manager Alan Lindenmoyer said the flight is “the culmination of the COTS program after many years.”
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:39:13 +0000
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