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The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) recently issued a study that underscores how the U.S. space industry is losing its competitive edge and risks falling short of future national security requirements unless government reforms our export control system and promotes the international competitiveness of U.S. industry. The report, Competing for Space: Satellite Export Policy and U.S. National Security, surveys U.S. satellite systems and components manufacturers about the challenges the space industrial base faces as a result of U.S. export policies. Among the adverse impacts on industry are loss of global market share and dampening of satellite component sales opportunities to sustain U.S. space technology leadership.

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We admit that much of our coverage is about looking at our great planet from space. Well today we are going to turn the tides and look in the other direction – from Earth out into space. After six years of intensive observations, astronomers have identified a distant solar system with at least five Neptune-class worlds orbiting within 130 million miles or so of the parent star–closer than Mars is to the sun. According to CNET, two other planets are believed to be present, including one just 1.4 times as massive as Earth. So what does this mean? This planet would be the smallest yet discovered, additional proof that Earth-size planets are falling within the reach of current Earth-based instruments.

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Welcome to the highly lauded Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? Is everyone happy that it is Friday? Rhetorical question, right! Well, this has been a most interesting week in the GEOINT world. We have a potentially devastating oil spill that is headed to the Louisiana coast, the CIA is developing micro UAV’s that are the size of a pizza platter, and DARPA lost contact with its Hypersonic Glider. So, we thought that this week’s FFT post can be all about being lost in space. There’s even a toothbrush floating around in space as we speak. Read on and enjoy.

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India is making grandiose plans to advance its efforts when it comes to being an international player in the “Space Race.” Through community-based programs, India’s space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation’s first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore. The goal of the effort is to expand India’s international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China.

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After nearly 37 years, NASA is going back to the moon. That is correct. Although this time, no human will be making a “giant leap.” It will be a satellite-mounted camera and a Kamikaze robot scout that will, according to NASA, pave the way for us to eventually step on the moon again. In what is being billed as a two-in-one mission, called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation Sensing Satellite, the agency considers the project its most exciting moon mission in nearly four decades, and launches a review of NASA’s plans to put astronauts on the moon in 2020. Read more here.

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The folks at Twitter are surely beaming with pride about the news story that just broke about an astronaut tweeting from outer space. Yes, that is correct. NASA astronaut Mike Massimino is now the first person to tweet from space — from the space shuttle Atlantis. While astronauts don’t have a direct Internet connection in space, he emailed his tweets to Johnson Space Center where they posted it directly to his Twitter account. Click here to see the actual tweet.

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Happy Friday. We hope everyone had a productive and prosperous week. Once again, it is “Friday’s Food for Thought” time and we tried our best to serve up some enlightening, entertaining and somewhat perplexing things happening in the world today. Today’s theme is all about space. From Space Symposium highlights to classic David Bowie and Flight of the Concords video clips, we have it all. Scroll down and enjoy.

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Space is a crowded place. Did you know that the Air Force tracks more than 18,000 objects in our orbit? And, the Feb 11 collision of an Iridium communications satellite with a Russian military satellite only underscores just how crowded it is up there. To deal with all of this space traffic and debris floating around, the Air Force has launched its Space Based Space Surveillance system (SBSS), which is a $425 million satellite equipped with a high-end 500-pound digital camera that can swivel and take photos of all the stuff in space.

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