Roy Mark

Maybe it was Mission Specialist Christopher Cassidy’s rally cap or the hearty thumbs from astronaut Dave Wolf. Whatever the reason, the space shuttle Endeavour’s seven-person crew put a month of bad luck behind them July 15, blasting off for a 16-day construction mission to the International Space Station.While weather threatened the liftoff earlier in the […]

Despite the sluggish economy, global sales of RFID technology are expected to grow 5 percent to $5.56 billion in 2009. According to IDTechEx, the surge in sales will be accomplished despite the world’s largest RFID project — the $6 billion China National ID card scheme — being completed a year earlier. The United States heads […]

Space Exploration Technologies, aka SpaceX, the private enterprise spaceflight company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, successfully launched a Malaysian satellite into orbit July 13 using the company’s Falcon 1 rocket. After four Falcon 1 test launches-three unsuccessful-the July 13 effort represented the first SpaceX venture to take a functional satellite into space.The launch of […]

One of the first bills introduced in the 111th Congress was the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009. The legislation would allow correctional institutions to permit the installation of jamming devices within a prison to prevent prison inmates from using smuggled cellular phones.“This legislation will fight criminal enterprises behind bars and protect innocent victims and […]

Stormy Florida weather July 13 postponed the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour for the third consecutive day and marked the fifth time since June that NASA has been forced to postpone the mission to deliver and install Japan’s 4.5 million-ton Kibo space-exposed laboratory complex.NASA was optimistic about a July 13 launch late in the […]

Playing to the social networking crowd, AT&T plans to offer the Nokia Surge July 19 in stores and online. The Symbian S60-based smartphone features a full QWERTY keyboard and a browser with Flash, and supports instant messaging, text messaging, multimedia messages and e-mail. It allows users to update and connect to popular social networks.AT&T will […]

The seemingly snake-bit Endeavour mission to the International Space Station missed its fourth consecutive liftoff opportunity July 12 as thunderstorms and lightning again shut down the launch. The volatile weather at Cape Canaveral also forced NASA to scratch a scheduled July 11 blastoff.With storms within 20 miles of the shuttle landing facility, NASA stopped the […]

NASA called off the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour for a third time July 11 after lightning strikes in the Cape Canaveral area prompted the space agency to move the liftoff to July 12. The mission to deliver equipment to the International Space Station was scratched twice in June due to a mysterious launch […]

Fresh off passage by a U.S. Senate committee, legislation for a comprehensive survey of the nation’s spectrum moved to the House July 9. The bill directs the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) to report on the use of all spectrum bands between 300 MHz and 3.5 GHz, which […]

The Space Shuttle Endeavour’s launch countdown operations continued without a hitch July 10, although predicted stormy weather continues to threaten the scheduled July 11 7:39 p.m. EDT liftoff. The mission, hauling the large, last pieces of the Japanese Kibo laboratory exposed complex to the International Space Station, was scratched twice in June due to a […]

Legislation updating a longstanding small business program for R&D won U.S. approval July 8. The bill modernizes the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, including allowing venture capitalists to again participate in the programs.The Enhancing Small Business Research and Innovation Act of 2009 increases the award sizes for early and midstage […]

Smartronix has won the $18 million General Services Administration contract for the redesign of the Recovery.gov Website, the federal site dedicated to tracking stimulus spending. This is the first award under GSA’s Alliant contract and it is initially valued at $9.5 million through January 2010. If all options are exercised through January 2014, the total […]