US advances stricter private aircraft security rules
Passengers US Department of Homeland Security officials last week proposed that pilots of private aircraft be required to transmit the names and other identifying information about their passengers to US officials 1h before departing the USA or 1h before arriving in the country. The proposal is a marked change from current rules, whereby pilots must give advance notice at an unspecified time before landing by either telephone or radio, listing the number of US and foreign passengers. The new rules would require the pilot of any private aircraft arriving in the US or departing the US to transmit to Customs and Border Protection officials via electronic means specific information regarding each individual travelling onboard the aircraft.
UK CAA issues student callsign ruling
Air traffic control Following the death of a solo student pilot, the UK Civil Aviation Authority has ruled that new pilots should alert air traffic control to their lack of experience by prefixing their first call to a controller with the word "student" followed by their callsign. The 19 July 2006 accident that precipitated the CAA's decision occurred at Southend Airport, UK, when a controller who had just come on watch in the tower gave an instruction to the student to abandon his approach to give priority to an arriving flight. The CAA explains in an air traffic services information notice: "The purpose of this callsign prefix is to enable all ATS personnel to take into consideration the limited ability of student pilots when issuing information and/or instructions."
More European human spaceflight studies proposed
Suborbital The €11 million ($15.2 million) FAST20XX suborbital human spaceflight project has been proposed to the European Commission for funding under its Seventh Framework research programme. FAST20XX would investigate three concepts single stage, an Antonov air launched system and a German Aerospace Center two-stage concept. If approved FAST20XX will follow the "Future high-altitude flight - an attractive commercial niche?" project that will end this October with the recommendation for a demonstration flight of an air launch system using an A330-200 freighter.
Pogo Jet files IPO to fund launch
VLJs Air taxi start-up Pogo Jet has filed for an initial public offering to raise more than $100 million to launch operations in the northeastern USA using Eclipse 500 very light jets. The company will not complete a purchase agreement with Eclipse until the money has been raised, but wants to begin private on-demand charter operations in the first quarter of 2009, its fleet increasing to 25 by the end of 2009 and around 100 by the end of 2009. Pogo plans to serve major cities such as New York, Boston and Washington DC, its initial service area covering as far north as Montreal, south to Charleston, North Carolina and inland to Cincinatti, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan.
NASA warns Rocketplane Kistler on COTS cancellation
Development Rocketplane Kistler's (RpK) Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) programme contract, signed with NASA in August 2006 to demonstrate a transportation system for International Space Station resupply by 2010, could be terminated by 8 October. NASA sent RpK the written notice its required to provide 30-days in advance of termination on 7 September. The termination threat was due to RpK failing to meet two contractual milestones milestone four, a second round of private fundraising worth $0.5 billion, was expected by July, and milestone five, a pressurised cargo module's critical design review that RpK had told NASA it could not achieve because technical work had stopped due to funding issues.
India to provide no-charge satellite data
Satellites The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is to provide data free of charge to research organisations, universities and institutions in third-world countries from its TWSAT (Third World Satellite), the first satellite in ISRO's micro satellite series. Dr SK Sharma, director of project planning at ISRO's Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), says the TWSAT weighs 5-6kg (11-13lb) and features a multi-spectral camera providing images with about 36m (118ft) spatial resolution and a swath of 151km (94 miles). The satellite will be launched as a piggyback payload onboard the four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) during 2007-08.
Source: Flight International
