25 Feb: MIB called
A "Mishap Investigation Board" has been called to investigate the "Unsuccessful launch" of a satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California.

The word "mishap" is something of an understatement. "Unsuccessful launch" is nearer the mark. What actually happenned is that a rocket, laden with fuel and a satellite failed to reach its intended speed and altitude, and crashed into the southern ocean.

There is something of an irony in the fact that the latest source of Antarctic pollution was a satellite that was supposed to be monitoring CO2 levels and global warming.

Conspiracy theorists on both sides of the global warming argument are now blaming each other for sabotaging the satellite for fear that it might prove or disprove each other's case.

21 Feb: Marine Accident investigators call for “unilateral action”

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has taken the unusual action of calling upon the UK Government to take unilateral action to reduce the number of shipping casualties caused by watchkeepers falling asleep on the job.

The recommendation comes as part of a report into the grounding of the 88m general cargo vessel Antari, in the early hours of 29 June last year.

So far as the accident investigators were able to establish, the Mate had probably fallen asleep soon after he had been left alone on the bridge, at midnight, and had woken only when the ship ran aground at 0321.

In the intervening three hours, he had missed a planned alteration of course that would have taken the ship from the Mull of Kintyre south-eastwards down the Irish Sea, and had continued in the wrong direction down the north-bound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme off between Ireland and Scotland before hitting the Irish coast near Larne.

The MAIB investigation found that the Mate had spent part of the previous night correcting charts, and had spent just  three and a half hours in bed. Then he had been involved in loading cargo from 0900 to 1300, on watch until 18:00, and was back on duty to receive a brief handover before taking over his watch again at midnight.

As the MAIB reports, “he was now the sole bridge watchkeeper. Both wheelhouse doors were closed, it was a clear, moonless night and the sea was calm with a slight westerly swell. He was sitting, as was his custom, in a chair on the starboard side of the wheelhouse. He fell asleep shortly after sitting down, and remained asleep until the vessel grounded at 0321”.

In a background “note”, released in conjunction with the report, the MAIB points out that “International standards for hours of rest allow seafarers to work a 98-hour week, and these incredibly long working weeks often continue for many months without any leave or even days off”.

“The cumulative effect of this fatigue, particularly amongst the officers who are responsible for the safety of their ship, results in many accidents in UK waters”.

Even more worryingly, it suggests that we may only be seeing the tip of a much larger iceberg: “From the number of accidents that have occurred from lone officers falling asleep on watch at night, it is possible to extrapolate that there are very many other unreported occasions, that have not resulted in accident, of ships travelling in UK waters with no one awake onboard. It can be only a matter of time before these “unguided missiles” cause a catastrophic accident.”

It formally recommends that the Department for Transport and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency should “Press for an urgent review of the process and principles of safe manning at the IMO (International Maritime Organisation) to reflect the critical safety issues of fatigue and the use of dedicated lookouts”, and in the interim that it should “instigate robust, unilateral measures to address the fatigue of bridge watchkeeping officers on vessels in UK waters and to ensure that a dedicated lookout is always posted at night, during restricted visibility and in hazardous navigational situations”.

13 Feb: Satellites collide

Although the new regulations are described as “exemptions”, their effect would be extend the scope of the "Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003". They would introduce similar alcohol restrictions for leisure mariners as are already in place for professionals and for the drivers of road vehicles -- 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.

Glonass – the Russian equivalent to GPS – has again been declared operational. 

According to the Russian news agency Itar-Tass, “The Glonass satellite navigation signal is again constant throughout Russia”, with a total of eighteen operational satellites. Two more satellites are already in orbit, but one is undergoing maintenance and another has yet to be connected to the system.

This is not the first time Glonass has been declared operational. The first was back in 1995, but the financial turmoil associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union a few years earlier made it impossible to maintain the system . But in 2001 the Russian government committed itself to restoring the system, and in 2007 President Putin signed a declaration to the effect that Glonass signals would be available to Russian and foreign consumers, free of charge and without limitations.

Current availability maps published by the Russian Space Agency show that at least four satellites are constantly available over most of the world, but world-wide coverage is marred by a blind-spot about the size of Australia that drifts around the southern hemisphere. With three satellites due for launch next month, and another three in August, the system is well on schedule to achieve world-wide operational capability during the latter part of this year.

China, meanwhile, has announced its intention of launching another ten satellites over the next two years to supplement the five existing satellites of its Beidou/Compass system, and then plans to double the constellation to a total of thirty satellites by 2015.

Assuming that Europe manages to get a few satellites into orbit anytime in the next few years, this means that in five years time, there could be something in the order of 100-120 satellites available to civilian users, from four independent operators.