Video Caption: On Saturday, May 17th 2014 I was asked to participate on a panel at ISDC 2014 with regards to media and engagement in the space sector. We didn’t think to bring a nice camera with us, but when we noticed that no online archive was being made, Cariann grabbed a cell phone and recorded the whole panel. Audio isn’t super awesome and video is only OK, but you […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
This is a fully outfitted test version of The Boeing Company’s CST-100 at the company’s Houston Product Support Center in Texas. (Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz)
Just finished up with a very strange commercial crew panel here at the International Space Development Conference in Los Angeles.
Of the three competitors, only Boeing was represented (by Chris Ferguson, director of Crew and Mission Operations). The Sierra Nevada rep didn’t show up, nor did the panel’s moderator. There was nobody from SpaceX even listed on the schedule.
The panel was rounded out by Pam Underwood from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST), and John Spencer, president of the Space Tourism Society.
Together with Ex-Im Reauthorization later this year, the Interim Final Rule will open the door to increased international space-related sales.
Statement by Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Marion C. Blakey
Arlington, Va. — The Aerospace Industries Association applauds the Administration’s issuance of revisions to Category XV of the U.S. Munitions List (USML) that will end excessive restrictions on space systems like commercial satellites and related articles. After a six month delayed implementation, the interim final rule will remove many of these less sensitive technologies from the USML and place them under the more appropriate controls of the Commerce Control List.
Rand Simberg has an op-ed in USA Today calling for the United States to end its dependence upon the Russia space program: There is only one realistic way to end our dependence on the Russians for space transportation: accelerate the Commercial Crew Program established by the Obama administration as a follow-on to the successful Cargo Resupply Services contracts initiated in the Bush administration (a CRS flight launched a couple weeks […]
A United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket successfully launched the sixth Global Positioning System IIF-6 satellite for the U.S. Air Force. (Credit: ULA)
CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, FLA., (May 16, 2014) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket successfully launched the sixth Global Positioning System (GPS) IIF-6 satellite for the U.S. Air Force at 8:03 p.m. EDT today from Space Launch Complex-37. This is ULA’s fifth launch in 2014, and the 82nd successful launch since the company was formed in December 2006.
It looks like Midland has clear sailing toward obtaining a spaceport license that would allow XCOR Aerospace to move to the west Texas city: Midland International Airport continues on its mission to obtain a spaceport license by Sept. 15 by passing a 30-day public comment period with no objections and solving a minor hiccup caused by the lesser prairie chicken’s threatened status. At Thursday’s Spaceport Development Corp. meeting, Director of […]
Astrobotic lander (Credit: Mark Maxwell)
Astrobotic Technology will develop the capability to perform autonomous, controlled landings on the Moon, Mars, and asteroids under the terms of a new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Pittsburgh, PA (Astrobotic PR) — Future NASA and commercial missions will increasingly target destinations with challenging topography and limited communication, such as unmapped asteroids, surface rendezvous sites for sample return, and terrain features like polar peaks, crater rims, and skylights on Mars and the Moon. “These are worthy but unexplored destinations,” said William “Red” Whittaker, Astrobotic’s Chairman. “Smaller, less expensive robotic landers will precede human missions to such destinations, but they are less tolerant – even a small hazard such as a rock or slope could be fatal for a small lander. This class of missions demands precise autonomous hazard detection and landing.”
The only way to counter accidents is to consistently carry out the decisions taken to reform our rocket and space industry — Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) May 16, 2014 Ah c’mon, Dmitry, ya gotta have more than that. Damn the icebergs, full speed ahead. That’s your answer? I mean, what would Stalin do? #Proton #Fail #Stalinist #Pinhead
@DRogozin Now you really need a trampoline. — Cristian (@Dinesco) May 15, 2014 Russian Ruler for Life Vladimir Putin appointed neo-Stalinist Dmitry Rogozin as deputy prime minister a few years ago to clean up the defense and space sectors. One of his major duties was to try to put an end to repeated launch failures the nation had been suffering at the time. Today, there was yet another example of […]
Looking back as SpaceShipTwo’s rocket engine fires during the third powered flight. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
One of the more interesting revelations that came out of the London Sunday Times story I co-wrote on WhiteKnightTwo’s wing cracks was that Virgin Galactic finally acknowledged that SpaceShipTwo won’t be able to reach the internationally recognized boundary of space, which is 100 km (62 miles).
So, just how high can this first version of SpaceShipTwo go? Virgin now says the spacecraft will be able to exceed 50 miles. Other sources I know are far less confident it will be able to reach that high.