spacetoday.net: News briefs: January 5-6

Posted: Mon, Jan 7, 2002, 9:40 AM ET (1440 GMT)

NASA and the Air Force have reduced security restrictions at Cape Canaveral for the first time since the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to a Florida Today report published on SPACE.com Saturday. The Air Force also plans to reopen a state highway this week that passes by Patrick Air Force Base on the Cape; the 10-km stretch of route A1A was closed after guards spotted suspicious photographers along the road near the base. Security levels still remain high at the base and at the Kennedy Space Center.
The U.S. Space Camp Foundation closed its Space Camp facility in California this weekend, the Huntsville Times reported. The foundation cited high debts for the closure of the facility, located near NASA’s Ames Research Center. The foundation will keep open its other two facilities in Florida and Alabama, and people with reservations for the California space camp will likely be transferred to Alabama.
A Chinese Long March 1 booster failed during a missile test on January 3, according to a Spacelift Washington report at SpaceRef. The launch was apparently designed to test a new warhead for the DF-31 ICBM, but a malfunction in the booster’s first stage required controllers to destroy the vehicle. The accident should not impact China’s space program as the Long March 1 was retired from space launches in 1995.