ANN's Annual Review Of The Year That Was: Aerospace In 2009  

Final Compilations by ANN News Editor, Tom Patton

Would it be too punny to say that the Aerospace industy had its "ups and downs" in 2009? From the downbeat forecast of The Augustine Commission to the unveiling of SpaceShip Two, it has been an interesting year in Aerospace. And, of course, everything is couched against the economy.

So; here are just a few of the stories we covered following the Aerospace business, for you, this year:

January

• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announced its Falcon 9 launch vehicle was successfully raised to vertical on Saturday - two days ahead of schedule...

• A public-private partnership to train space tourists in Florida was marred by accusations of impropriety.
• Brice Harris, who worked in Governor Charlie Crist's tourism and economic-development office, appears to have been deeply involved in putting together a half-million-dollar deal to train would-be space tourists at a Panhandle sports-medicine clinic...
• The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit performed diagnostic tests after Spirit did not report some of its weekend activities, including a request to determine its orientation after an incomplete drive...
• Recent reports of comments attributed to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin have made it clear he doesn't expect to hold the post after Inauguration Day. The former rocket scientist has been criticized by some, called a genius by others...
• A team of NASA and university scientists achieved the first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active...
• British billionaire Richard Branson signed a 20-year lease with the state of New Mexico to build the first US spaceport, and Virgin Galactic expects to break ground on the facility by April, with completion slated for sometime in 2010...
• NASA moved one step closer to the first flight test of the rocket that will send humans on their way to the moon as part of the agency's Constellation Program. Rocket hardware critical for the test, known as Ares I-X, was completed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA...

February

• Despite the tough economic climate in the U.S., almost 90 percent of Americans see value in the U.S. space program. This finding is part of the results of a survey commissioned by the Coalition for Space Exploration, proving that space is still very important to the American people...
• The ambitious dream of returning to the Moon -- this time to stay -- appears alive and well in a magnificently diverse team of space enthusiasts, artists, engineers, students, and explorers jointly called Synergy Moon, the latest entrant in the X Prize Foundation’s Google Lunar X Prize..

• In recognition of African American contributions to equal rights and aviation, Mojave, CA-based XCOR Aerospace presented Tuskegee Airman Le Roy Gillead, of San Francisco, with a ticket for a ride to the edge of space. The presentation took place during the University of California Riverside's 5th annual celebration of the Tuskegee Airmen, titled, "Voices of the Tuskegee Airmen and Airwomen."...
• A defunct Russian military satellite collided with an active Iridium communication satellite in orbit, about 490 miles above northern Siberia... in what is believed to be the first documented case of an accidental satellite collision....
• For better or worse, there's a new space power in the world. Iran launched its first satellite into low-Earth orbit Monday evening, marking the 30th anniversary of the 1979 overthrow of the Shah and the start of the Islamic Revolution.
• Former Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt took a position on global warming contrary to that of many of his peers... but he's hardly alone...

March

• NASA's Kepler spacecraft lifted off the pad from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, propelled towards the heavens atop a Delta II launch vehicle...
• EADS turned things around in 2008 with a net profit of nearly $2 billion US. Analysts believe, however, the future holds a far gloomier picture for the aerospace consortium...
• The conglomerate that owns such notable aerospace companies as Sikorsky, Pratt & Whitney, Rocketdyne and Hamilton Sundstrand cut 5 percent of its global workforce this year, the latest victim of a staggeringly awful global economy...
• The firm created by the merger of the El Segundo and Redondo Beach operations of aerospace manufacturer Northrop Grumman planed  to cut up to 750 jobs in Southern California over the next three months, the latest casualties of increasing consolidation in the military and defense sectors...
• Virgin Galactic said the test flight program for WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the space launch vehicle being developed for the company's SpaceShipTwo (SS2) commercial spacecraft, completed its third successful test flight...

• Sikorsky successfully completed the first flight of its X2 Technology Demonstrator, maneuvering the prototype aircraft through hover, forward flight, and a hover turn, in a test flight that lasted approximately 30 minutes...
• Virgin Galactic announced the names of the five travel companies who will train to become "Accredited Space Agents" - ASAs - the first agents in Scandinavia allowed to reserve seats aboard suborbital space flights from Spaceport Sweden, slated to begin in 2012...
• President Barack Obama gave his opinion on NASA's current vision... or rather, the lack of same. Saying the space agency now suffers from "a sense of drift," Obama told the paper what NASA needs is a "mission that is appropriate for the 21st century."...
• Boeing, through its Space Exploration division, submitted a proposal to NASA for Altair lunar lander design support. NASA is expected to award multiple contracts this spring...

April

• David King, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, retired from the agency to accept a position as executive vice president of Dynetics in Huntsville, effective immediately....
• Three months after being criticized in a Government Accountability Office report, NASA Inspector General Robert Cobb submitted a letter of resignationto the White House on Thursday. President Barack Obama accepted Cobb's resignation, which is effective April 11.
• ANN regrettably learned that famed physicist, author, and Zero-G flyer, Stephen Hawking has been rushed to the hospital after his medical condition worsened (though, thankfully, he did recover)...

• Boeing scored a big legal win, and a potentially even greater payoff. Earlier this month, the American aerospace titan won a patent-infringement claim filed against NASA regarding the material used to construct external fuel tanks for the space shuttle...
• NASA  announced the name for its latest module destined for the International Space Station... and no, it's was't "Colbert." ...
• A company's efforts to stop a scientist from revealing his research findings about faulty electronic components the company sold to the government for military and intelligence-gathering satellites were the basis for a whistleblower lawsuit that Northrop Grumman Corp. settled this week, for a record sum of $325 million...
• NASA announced it's time to start shutting down NASA's historic space shuttle program...
• Persistent problems with fuel level sensors in the shuttle's external fuel tanks have scrubbed several launches over the past 20 years, and the government's prime contractors have failed to solve the problems, despite the imposing engineering credentials of their in-house staffs, until now...

May

• The White House nominated a pioneering Space Shuttle astronaut, Charles Bolden, to lead NASA during what may come to be one of its most demanding times..
• NASA announced that twelve-year-old Clara Ma from the Sunflower Elementary school in Lenexa submitted the winning entry, "Curiosity."...
• There are few missions in the history of the Space Shuttle program that compare with that just completed -- STS-125 -- the mission to rescue The Hubble Space Telescope...
• NASA signed a $306 million modification to the current International Space Station contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency for crew transportation and related services in 2012 and 2013...
• Masten Space Systems completed their first vertical take-off, vertical-landing (VTVL) rocket flight demonstration. The demonstration proved out the design and controls of the 730lb rocket-powered vehicle, known as XA-0.1B-750 or “Xombie”, its internal nickname...

• The National Space Society (NSS) offered its congrats to retired Marine Major General and four-time Space Shuttle Astronaut Charles Bolden on his nomination to the office of NASA Administrator, and Lori Garver on her nomination to the office of Deputy Administrator...
• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's PWR-9221FJ dual-mode ramjet engine successfully completed its first ground test at Mach 4 flight conditions at the Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, TN...

June

• The fifth anniversary of Mike Melvill, then 62, achieving an amazing goal . He boosted to an altitude of just slightly over 328,000 feet -- 62.5 miles -- becoming the world's first private-industry astronaut...
• Another in a string of modifications to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center took place. In preparation for the upcoming Ares I-X launch, scheduled to take place in late August, a Space Shuttle service component  was removed from the pad's Fixed Service Structure...

• NASA announced the formation and initial members of the Human Space Flight Review Committee, which will help the agency develop plans for manned space flight after the shuttle fleet retires...
• NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter continued examining Mars with its scientific instruments after successfully transitioning out of a precautionary standby mode triggered by an unexpected June 3 rebooting of its computer...
• NASA stands front and center as the most visible representation of the U.S. space program and is critical to our country's future leadership and competitiveness, according to AIA Vice President of Space Systems, J.P. Stevens...
• Officials from the New Mexico Spaceport Authority scheduled a formal ground breaking ceremony of Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport, for Friday, June 19...
• The industry association of companies seeking to make commercial human spaceflight a reality rolled out a new website and a new name ... The Commercial Spaceflight Federation...
• Space Adventures, Ltd., announced that Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil and the ONE DROP Foundation, has begun training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City in preparation for his poetic social mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

July

• NASA successfully demonstrated an alternate system for future astronauts to escape their launch vehicle. A simulated launch of the Max Launch Abort System, or MLAS, took place at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA...
• Charles Frank Bolden, Jr., was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the twelfth administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Lori Beth Garver was confirmed as NASA's deputy administrator...
• What was it that Arlo Guthrie said in "Alice's Restaurant"? Once more in 5 part harmony ... with feeling ... or words to that effect. That must have been how the crew of Endeavour felt when they suited up for the 6th time and climbed back aboard their spacecraft, but this time they wouldn't be getting off until they reached ISS...

• The 2008 NASA Commercial Invention of the Year is a high temperature resin designed to create composites through low-cost manufacturing processes -- ideal for advanced aerospace vehicles...
• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) says they have successfully completed qualification testing for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle first stage tank and interstage. Testing took place at SpaceX’s Texas Test Site...
• A judge convicted a 73-year-old Chinese-born engineer who worked for both Boeing and Rockwell of stealing secrets critical to the U.S. Space Program. He was found guilty on six counts of economic espionage...

August

• U.S. Army astronaut Col. Tim Kopra became the first International Space Station crew member to communicate through Twitter...
• The Obama Administrations' Human Spaceflight Commission, also known as The Augustine Commission after its chairman Norman Augustine, said it would tell the administration that NASA's budget constraints make the continuation of human spaceflight almost impossible to sustain, putting plans for a return to the moon or a mission to Mars in doubt...
• NASA named Robert M. Lightfoot, Jr., as the director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL. Lightfoot had served as the acting director of the center since March....
• The commission charted by The Obama Administration to set the country's post-shuttle space goals winnowed the number of potential missions down from 864 to seven, with a goal of reaching three potential scenarios by next week. “That’s not a joke,” said Edward F. Crawley, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a panel member....
• The Next Step in Space Coalition, announced that its membership has grown to include a diverse set of businesses and organizations, including Google, Inc., Analytic Graphics Inc., the Space Coast Economic Development Commission and the National Space Society...

September

• NASA assigned the crew for the last scheduled space shuttle mission, targeted to launch in September 2010. The flight to the International Space Station will carry a pressurized logistics module to the station.
• The Augustine Commission Report has concluded that to return to the moon, NASA's budget would have to increase by $3 billion per year over the currently budgeted $18 billion...
• NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of space transportation...
• At a hearing before the House Science and Technology Committee , Human Space Flight Commission Chair Norman Augustine found himself defending the committees' recommendations to scrap a planned return to the moon given NASA's budget constraints...
• China broke ground on its fourth space launch center , as part of that country's effort to build on its manned space flight program...
• Masten Space Systems successfully demonstrated multiple sustained free flights of its XA-0.1B vertical take-off, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket . The longest flight was 93 seconds...

October

• NASA's Ares I-X test rocket lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a two-minute powered flight. The test flight lasted about six minutes from its launch from the newly-modified Launch Complex 39B until splash down of the rocket's booster stage nearly 150 miles down range...

• Masten Space Systems successfully qualified for first place in Level Two of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge Wednesday. Flying a brand new vehicle named XA-0.1E (nicknamed Xoie).
• Governor Bob Riley (R-AL), Governor Haley Barbour (R-MS), and Governor Bobby Jindal (R- LA) announced the launch of The Aerospace Alliance...
• NASA's Human Spaceflight Commission released its final report for the White House, and the outlook for the future of government-funded human spaceflight is fairly bleak...
• NASA recovered the main solid rocket booster of the Ares I-X following yesterday's test flight. The booster was found floating upright in the Atlantic ocean, but on inspection, divers found pronounced buckling in the booster's lower segment...
• NASA officials said in a news conference that two of the three 150-foot parachutes designed to slow the descent of the Ares I-X booster failed, causing it to be damaged when it impacted the water...
• Being in microgravity would probably make all those amazing Cirque du Soleil stunts a LOT easier, but founder Guy Laliberté didn't take an entire troupe with him. He did, however, arrive safely at ISS onboard aSoyuz TMA-16 spacecraft...

November

• NASA announced that preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater...

• NASA awarded $1.65 million in prize money to a pair of innovative aerospace companies that successfully simulated landing a spacecraft on the moon and lifting off again...
• The Commercial Spaceflight Federation announced the creation and initial membership of the Spaceports Council...
• Former astronaut Lisa Nowak, who had faced charges of attempted kidnapping, burglary, and battery, pleaded guilty to lesser charges of felony burglary of a car and a battery misdemeanor in an agreement reached with prosecutors...

December

• Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson and SpaceshipOne (SS1) designer, Burt Rutan, revealed SS2 to the public for the first time since construction of the world’s first manned commercial spaceship began in 2007...

• The Yecheon Astro Space Center announced that it has selected XCOR Aerospace as its preferred supplier of suborbital space launch services...
• A Russian Space Agency official said that after the retirement of the U.S. Space Shuttle, there will be no more seats available to transport tourists to ISS on Soyuz spacecraft...
• Hurricane force winds hit Mojave Air and Spaceport CA., tearing apart a specially created site which had been used throughout the day to house guests attending the first roll out of Virgin Galactic's new spaceship...

 FMI: There You Have It -- ANN's 2009 Year In Aerospace: What Did You Think Of It ALL?