The European Union decided to rescue it's dramatically over budget and behind schedule 'Galileo' project. Galileo is a Global Positioning System similar to that used and controlled the United States. The project would comprise a network of 30 satellites that would enable a person on the ground to pinpoint their location within a few meters; providing a higher accuracy of position that the US based system.

The rising costs of the project meant that it was nearly abandoned this week. However, the governments of the European Union stepped in and decided to fund the project themselves in order to guarantee that the project is completed.

Several stages of building the Pioneer rockets were not done in a clean room. The result is that it is likely that bacteria is present on the outer shell of the Pioneer probes. As these probes head towards the outer rim of the solar system and beyond, they will carry the earthly DNA in that bacteria through the galaxy. The article makes it clear that these probes will not be near another star system for some time (more than 40,000 years), and that it is not likely that they will get anywhere near another planet for a long time. Still, score one for migration.

Two days ago the NFIRE satellite was launched from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. After the launch US Department of Defense people said that the NFIRE satellite would be researching heat signatures of rocket plumes. It was immediately suggested by critics of NFIRE that the project would be a stepping stone towards creating the long sought after US missile defense shield. after the launch of the NFIRE satellite system Vladimir Putin threatens to pull Russia out of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty. Putin claims his threat is in response to US plans to develop a missile defense shield.

The Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia launched the NFIRE satellite yesterday. The NFIRE satellite is designed to watch ground based missiles. The acronym stands for Near Field Infared Experiment and will be studying images of plumes from missile launches. Supporters of the program (Missile Defense Agency, Defense Department) claim that the project is only for research and testing purposes. Critics (Russia, China, Helen Caldicott) says that the testing is part of the missile defense shield project and an irrevocable step towards the milit

The Pentagon is toying with the idea of space based solar arrays accoring to MSNBC. The arrays would allow the military to power their equipment in remote locations, as well as provide power at all times of the day. The whole project goes under the 'maybe' category at the moment with Michael Hornitschek, part of the Air Force staff at the Pentagon, seeking funding from The National Security Space Office (NSSO).

The project sounds similar to an idea from the L5 society in the 70's. Although the L5 idea was to build large human colonies that would beam energy back to earth.

A Small Russian weather satellite recently ceased to exist. The Russians say that the US blasted it with an earth based laser, or communications jamming equipment. The US denies these claims. The US puts forth the alternate proposition that it was hit by space junk. The Russians say that if it was hit by space junk there would be more debris, apparently no debris was tracked. The Russians also say that the weather satellite was working fine until it the orbit placed in into a radar dead zone for about one hour. Once it was again visible on radar, the satelitte was no longer responding.

The Falcon 1 rocket, from SpaceX was successfully launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. However, the craft was not able to reach it's intended orbit before telemetry was lost and the nose cone was jettisoned. This is the second test launch for the DARPA financed Falcon 1, and the second time the craft has failed to meet expectations. Despite this, Elon Musk - co-founder of PayPal and CEO of SpaceX, believes that the launch was a success. At least all of the hardware wasn't lost in a launch pad fireball, I suppose.

Scientists are hoping to explain what they call the Pioneer Anomaly by digitizing and analyzing the 10 gigs of data stored on magnetic tape drives. The MSNBC space article on the subject is very vague about what the Pioneer Anomaly actually is. Apparently something at the edge of our solar system is 'pushing back' the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes. The probes were launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively. Apparently the probes are closer to the sun than people involved in the project think the probes should be. About 240,000 miles closer to the sun.

The US Air force launched a clutch of satellites from Cape Canaveral Thursday night. The satellites are part of a DARPA funded project called Orbital Express. The clutch consists of five NextSat satellites, which have reportedly been launched to study atmospheric conditions and collect data. The sixth satellite of the clutch is the ASTRO, a repair satellite. The ASTRO satellite is testing service and refueling techniques. The ASTRO can attach to working satellites to replace defective parts or provide additional prope

I read an AP news release about an alleged Iranian Shahab-4 rocket that was launched into space. I have not seen any confirmation from international sources that the are tracking, or have tracked the launch. Further, several sources stated that the launch was sub-orbital and not into space. (BBC, ABC)
Iran's state media says, and the head of Iran's aerospace program have said that the launch was for research purposes. Evidently, Iran wants to start sending it's own satellites into space. Currently Iran works with the Russians to send satellites into orbit. Iran wants to have 4 satellites in space by 2010 for land and mobile phones. They also want 12 transponder satellites for internet and communications systems.

I'm sure plenty of people saw this article on Fark.com about an Exploding Russian Satellite. As it turns out, it wasn't a Russian satellite, but a rocket booster filled with corrosive hypergolic fuels. The rocket booster, called a Breeze-M, is left from a 2006 satellite launch. Evidently this sort of explosion is not uncommon. The explosion filled space with over 1000 pieces of debris. Combine that debris with the Chinese weather satellite and...All I can say is, start stockpiling your HDTV signal now.

Beginning in 2008, Boeing plans to re-enter the commercial satellite market. They will begin using a modified version of it's 702 spacecraft which they claim is smaller and more flexible than its predecessor.

The five satellites that comprise the THEMIS project are set to launch today aboard a single rocket. The five rockets will study the magnetosphere of the earth for clues as to the nature of solar storms that damage satellites and electronic communications on earth. A short intro into the THEMIS project
A short intro into a similar European Space Agency Project

Given that the Chinese have demonstrated the capability to obliterate satellites in low earth orbit, what does this mean for US military capabilities?

What do we know from publicly available sources?

1. The Chinese have blown up a satelitte in low earth orbit. Low Earth Orbit being commonly defined as 200 - 2000 km above the earth.
2. In the fall of 2006 the Chinese succeeded in illuminating a US satelitte with a laser. This was known by US intelligence agencies.
3. The Project for the New American Century stated in their 2000 defense review that one important objective for the US should be the 'control of space and cyberspace'. This document has been followed extensively by the Bush administration and the military over the last 7 years. There is no reason to suspect that the US military would have slacked on 'control of space' while completing all other objectives. And in fact there is evidence to support that the US has publicly attempted to push forward with the 'control of space' objective by organizing of the US Space Corps, as a division of the US Air Force. To my knowledge this plan did not go forward publicly or directly.
   

There isn't much happening in the world of space travel today. Most of the news is just re-hashing old stories. None-the-less here's a quick run down of the more interesting stories of the day.

There is more blow back from the Chinese Anti-Satellite (ASAT) test from mid-January. MSNBC once again refers to the satellite as having been blown up by a ballistics missile. Early reports indicated a laser weapon. I would really like to know which is true.

People have high expectations of the building capabilities of the private space tourism industry. This article just runs down some of the more interesting players in the game and how the organizations are bureaucratizing themselves for the launch of private space travel. The Personal Spaceflight Federation, an industry association of companies involved in private space travel, is setting up to work with the FAA to develop manageable policies for people in space.