Satellites

WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. satellites watching Earth is expected to plummet by 2020, and weather forecasting, including hurricane tracking, could suffer as a result, a new report warns. The study, released last week by the nation's top science advisors, estimated that the fleet of science satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would "decline precipitously" from a peak of 110 probes last year to fewer than 30 in 2020. The drop is a result of several factors, including budget problems and rocket accidents, and scientists said the United States risked blurring its vision of Earth if it did not act quickly to replace satellites expected to die during the next eight years.

Boeing Co.'s sprawling satellite-making operation in Southern California has just concluded a round of voluntary buyouts in an effort to slash its workforce by 250 to 300 employees. The aerospace giant confirmed that it offered the exit program to senior, non-management employees in its space and intelligence systems unit, which has sites in El Segundo, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and Torrance. Boeing said it had received a sufficient number of volunteers during the two-week period that ended Friday, so involuntary layoffs are unlikely.

When space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Monday morning, it carried three tiny satellites — each the size of a postage stamp. The slim, 1-inch-square satellites on NASA's next-to-last shuttle mission are to be mounted on the outside of the International Space Station to collect data measuring the harsh conditions of space. Mason Peck, a Cornell University professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who leads the project, said the bite-size satellites, dubbed Sprite, are prototypes.

Dish Network Corp. is taking a run at Sprint. The satellite television company made an unsolicited $25.5-billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. on Monday in an attempt to marry one of the nation's biggest pay-TV providers with the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier. A merger would give Dish the ability to package Internet and phone service with its satellite offerings. "A transformative DISH/Sprint merger will create the only company that can offer customers a convenient, fully integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services," Dish Chairman Charles W. Ergen said.

Two Navy navigation satellites were launched Monday aboard a Scout rocket, and authorities were waiting to see if the satellites would enter their assigned polar orbit. The contrail from the launch was visible in the twilight sky over a wide area of Southern California. The satellites, launched at 6:57 p.m., were to enter a 600-mile circular polar orbit, he said.

For the first time, an international team of researchers has used satellites to track the movements of manta rays, providing valuable new information about the massive rays, which are considered "vulnerable" to extinction  by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The preliminary findings for the Atlantic mantas showed that they traveled as far as 680 miles over a one- to two-month period searching for food, sticking close to the coastline. They also spent considerable time in shipping lanes, which rendered them vulnerable to being hit by freighters.

A NASA satellite designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions and pinpoint global warming dangers crashed Tuesday after a protective covering failed to separate from the craft shortly after launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The loss of the $278-million satellite came as a severe blow to NASA's climate monitoring efforts, as well as the builder of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has decided to kill a controversial Bush administration program to use U.S. spy satellites to collect domestic intelligence for counter-terrorism, law enforcement and security, a senior Homeland Security official said Monday evening. The National Applications Office program was established in 2007 to provide up-to-the-minute electronic intelligence to local and state law enforcement.

Hawthorne rocket maker SpaceX announced it will launch its first two military satellites in 2014 and 2015. It was a major announcement for the young company and its 41-year-old billionaire founder, Elon Musk, who has been working toward getting military business for years. "SpaceX deeply appreciates and is honored by the vote of confidence shown by the Air Force in our Falcon launch vehicles," Musk said in a statement. "We look forward to providing high-reliability access to space with lift capability to orbit that is substantially greater than any other launch vehicle in the world.

In a boost for privately funded space ventures, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. expects to announce Wednesday that it has signed a $492-million contract to launch rockets carrying satellites for a mobile telecommunications company. The deal represents a major breakthrough for the Hawthorne-based rocket company, known as SpaceX, which has been pushing a low-cost way to lift commercial satellites into space. Two weeks ago, the company, co-founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, successfully test launched its Falcon 9 rocket, which analysts said is likely to be the vehicle that takes the satellites into orbit.

As L.A.'s center of musical gravity shifts east to Coachella for the next two weekends, night life in the city will finally get some breathing room. No lines at the bar, cabs when you need them, an entire population of trustafarian party people otherwise occupied - why, it's a veritable Eden of going out close to home. Take advantage of the reprieve by hitting up some of these local events. Some are deliberate ripostes to Coachella, others just happen to fall on the calendar this week.

On Feb. 14, a Hollywood delegation showed up at the White House. Motion Picture Academy President Hawk Koch, Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and film mogul Harvey Weinstein had come to explore a rather important matter (for them): They wanted to see if they could secretly work out the details for Michelle Obama to present best picture at the Oscars 10 days later. Senior members of the first lady's team met with the group, discussing a series of questions from the big to the picayune, according to a person present who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to talk about the meeting.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE -- A 19-story white rocket successfully lifted a NASA science satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base, located northwest of Santa Barbara. The picture-perfect launch, which took place Monday at 10:02 a.m. PST, occurred at the base's Space Launch Complex-3 along the Pacific Ocean. The Atlas V rocket, built by United Launch Alliance, boosted the Landsat 8 satellite about 410 miles above the Earth. The satellite's first signal was received 82 minutes into the mission at a ground station in Svalbard, Norway, the space agency said.

A 20-story rocket carrying a massive communications satellite failed to reach orbit and fell into the ocean after being launched from a floating  platform near the equator. The failed launch is a potentially huge setback for the rocket venture Sea Launch, which exited bankruptcy protection in late 2010 and has major operations in Long Beach. Late Thursday, Sea Launch said that about 40 seconds after liftoff all telemetry was lost, indicating a loss of mission.  The company said it will establish a board to determine the root cause of the incident.

SEOUL -- In danger of falling behind in the space race on the Korean peninsula, the South Korean government announced Wednesday that it had successfully launched a rocket into space. Pressure had been mounting ever since mid-December when communist arch-rival North Korea managed to launch a multi-stage rocket and put a satellite into orbit. South Korea's Satellite Launch Vehicle-1, also known as Naro, blasted off at 4 p.m. local time from a space center in Jeolla province on the southwestern coast.

A group of private entrepreneurs is raising $20 million to fund the first stage of a mission to identify asteroids close to Earth and mine them for valuable materials. Deep Space Industries plans to launch three small crafts armed with cameras, called Fireflies, on an asteroid discovery mission as early as 2015. Three more spacecrafts, called Dragonflies, are expected to launch in 2016 to collect samples to be evaluated for mining potential. Planetary Resources, a Seattle company that launched its asteroid-mining operation last year, is developing a space telescope for spaceflight soon.

A rocket standing 19 stories tall is ready to roar to life and boost a top-secret satellite into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base. On Thursday at 2:39 p.m. PDT, United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket is set to launch a national security payload and cluster of miniature satellites. There will be live launch coverage on United Launch Alliance's website , which will begin at 2:19 p.m. The mission has been delayed six weeks because of a nagging glitch with equipment on the base northwest of Santa Barbara.

NASA is preparing to launch the eighth observation satellite in the Landsat remote sensing program that has chronicled changes in the Earth's land cover for four decades. Landsat 8, set for a Feb. 11 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, will be equipped with instruments capable of more sensitive data collection than its predecessors. “This will be the best Landsat satellite ever in terms of quality and quantity,” said NASA project scientist Jim Irons. The satellite will circle the Earth about 14 times a day, 438 miles above the planet, recording observations in different wavelengths along a 115-mile-wide swath and orbiting over the same point every 16 days.

WASHINGTON - When North Korea launched a small satellite into orbit last month for the first time, U.S. officials called it a cover for a more ominous goal: a ballistic missile that could carry a nuclear weapon as far as the continental United States. But North Korea is a long way from building a workable intercontinental missile and, at the current pace of testing, it could take many years before they are close, missile technology experts say. "They could put up something that would look like a credible missile but ... it's not really much of a threat," said Boston-based physicist David Wright, who follows the North Korean program for the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists.