A private company with long-term interests in mining asteroids officially announced plans for a low-cost mission to study a near-Earth asteroid and report on its composition, which could serve as the basis for future mining efforts.
     Jim Benson, chairman of SpaceDev, announced the Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) mission at a Washington press conference September 9. The spacecraft is designed to fly to a nearby asteroid and perform a scientific analysis of it, with the data returned sold to NASA, universities, and other interested parties.
     "We will sell our science to anyone willing to pay for it," Benson said. "It's a common sense, business approach to deep space."
     NEAP is similar to NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft, launched last year and en route to the asteroid Eros. Benson, though, said his spacecraft would be able to return high-quality data on another asteroid at a mission cost of $50 million, less than a fourth of the cost of NEAR.
     "Space is a place, not a government program," Benson said, a statement similar to that used by some space activists in recent years.
     Benson said the company is in the process of raising funds for the mission. The spacecraft could be launched as soon as late 1999.
     Next month SpaceDev will release an announcement of opportunity for participation in the NEAR mission by companies, schools, and space agencies. The announcement will include a "price list" for various types of space on the spacecraft that scientists could use for experiments.
     NEAP is the first, small step in a program that could eventually lead to mineral extraction from asteroids. A future mission would return samples of an asteroid to Earth. Any actual efforts to mine asteroids, though, would come much farther in the future, Benson said.
     While asteroid mining is usually considered to be the extraction of metals and other minerals, one of the most profitable early products of asteroid mining could be ice, said John Lewis of the University of Arizona at the press conference.
     Water ice could be extracted from the extinct cores of comets, which may compose a significant fraction of near-Earth asteroids. Water can be used for a variety of purposes, and can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen for breathing and for rocket fuel.
     Benson said a typical stony asteroid, which is one of the poorest in mineral wealth, could contain several trillion dollars in useful materials.

Delays with a new Lockheed Martin launch vehicle have pushed back the launch of the Lunar Prospector mission by two months, NASA officials announced.
     Lunar Prospector, originally scheduled for a September 24 launch, has been delayed until at least November 23.
     The delay is associated not with the spacecraft itself but its launch vehicle, an LMLV-2. The launch is delayed as Lockheed Martin officials go through final tests of the rocket and analyze data from the launch of a LMLV-1 which took place last month.
     The LMLV-2 has never been launched before, and the LMLV-1 was first launched successfully last month, carrying the Lewis satellite into orbit. An LMLV-1 launch last year ended in the destruction of the launch vehicle.
     Lunar Prospector is the third in NASA's series of Discovery missions, which promise quality science missions for less than $150 million. Lunar Prospector will go into polar orbit around the Moon and return data on the composition of the surface. The spacecraft will also try to confirm the presence of water ice in permanently shadowed regions of the Moon's south pole.
     The launch will be the first from a new commercial launch facility at Cape Canaveral. The launch pad is operated by Spaceport Florida.

The U.S. Air Force and Boeing rolled out a prototype of a unmanned military spaceplane September 3 that may eventually deliver payloads into orbit and provide reconnaissance capabilities for the military.
     The Space Maneuver Vehicle, unveiled at a Boeing plant in Seal Beach, California, is a 90-percent scale model of a reusable spacecraft. Not designed for launch, the unpowered vehicle will be used for landing tests.
     In tests slated for this fall in New Mexico, the vehicle will be dropped from a helicopter at 10,000 feet. Using parachutes and its own wings, the 6.7-meter (22-foot), 1130-kg (2,500-lbs.) vehicle will glide to a safe landing on a runway, using GPS systems for guidance.
     "The craft will replicate what would be expected during the final stages of its re-entry from a mission," said Capt. John Anttonen, chief of the Military Spaceplane Program Office.
     The Space Maneuver Vehicle is part of a larger military spaceplane program. A military spaceplane, currently being planned, would loft the maneuver vehicle into orbit. The maneuver vehicle could then move payloads into higher orbits or serve as a long-term platform reconnaissance platform.
     "The military spaceplane allows us to routinely fly suborbital or orbital missions, while the space maneuver vehicle lets us move all over the sky," said Lt. Col. Craig McPherson, head of the Military Spaceplane Technology Systems at the Air Force Phillips Labs.
     Future phases of the program, including the development of a manned spaceplane which would deliver the maneuver vehicle to orbit, are planned but as yet unfunded.

Four launch vehicles, from the United States, Europe, China, and Russia successfully lofted payloads into orbit in early September.
     A Chinese Long March 2C launched two test payloads into orbit on September 1 from its Taiyuan launch facility. The launch was designed to test the booster for future use launching Iridium satellites. The China Great Wall industry Corporation, which builds and markets the Long March series of boosters, has a contract for up to 10 Iridium launches.
     An Ariane 44LP launched two European satellites from Kourou, French Guiana, on September 2 at 6:21pm EDT (2221 UT). The launch placed the Hotbird 3 communications satellite and the Meteosat 7 satellite into geosynchronous orbit. Hotbird 3 will be used by Eutelsat to provide direct broadcasting television services for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, while Meteosat 7 will watch the weather over Europe and Africa.
     An Atlas IIAS launched a communications satellite from Cape Canaveral at 8:03am EDT (1203 UT) September 4. The Atlas launched GE-3, a satellite for General Electric's GE Americom unit, and will be used for TV broadcasts. The launch was delayed one day when problems developed with the pressurization of a liquid oxygen tank on the rocket.
     A Russian Proton rocket launched seven Iridium satellites September 13 at 9:36pm EDT (0136 UT September 14) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The seven Iridium satellites join the 22 already in orbit. Another Iridium launch is scheduled for September 25 using a Delta booster from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.