SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said today that his company will file a suit against the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award a large bulk buy of 36 core boosters to rival United Launch Alliance (ULA). Musk said that the suit is aimed at forcing the U.S. Air Force to open the launches for competition. Musk said that the certification process that the U.S. Air Force is requiring of SpaceX’s Falcon […]
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Doug Messier
NASA and SpaceX cut the ribbon at the E-2 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center on April 21 to mark the beginning of a new testing partnership. SpaceX will test components of its methane-fueled Raptor rocket engine on the stand. Participants in the ribbon-cutting ceremony were (l to r): Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi and NASA’s Stennis Space Center Director Rick Gilbrech. (Credit: NASA)
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (NASA PR) — An April 21 ribbon-cutting ceremony at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., marked the beginning of a new NASA and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) partnership aimed at continuing to propel America’s burgeoning commercial space program forward and enhance utilization of NASA’s advanced test facilities. Several Mississippi leaders joined NASA and SpaceX representatives for the ceremony including Gov. Phil Bryant, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo.
SpaceX signed a Space Act Agreement with the space agency last fall to test components of its methane-fueled Raptor rocket engine on the E-2 Test Stand at Stennis. SpaceX is developing the Raptor as a reusable engine for a heavy-lift launch vehicle.
NASA Commercial Crew Return on Investment Report
April 2014
NASA requirements have been developed over decades, through lessons learned designing, developing, testing, and operating spacecraft and rockets. NASA has taken this experience and developed a comprehensive set of requirements and standards that commercial crew transportation systems will need to address during the current and upcoming verification and certification efforts. NASA has categorized these requirements and standards into three general types:
Type 1 requirements: Partners must meet the NASA requirements as written;
Type 2 requirements: Partners can either choose to adopt the NASA requirements and standards or propose an alternate that meets or exceeds the NASA document; and
Type 3 requirements: Partners do not need to formally adopt the NASA document; rather, NASA documentation forms an integral reference based on our human and non-human spaceflight experience.
BLAST OFF: The Future of Spaceflight Thursday, May 1st at 7 p.m. The Explorers Club New York City What: The Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the Explorers Club will be celebrating a night of commercial spaceflight, showcasing the technology and advancement made by companies in this exciting sector. The event will be attended by representatives from CSF’s membership including Blue Origin, Penn State’s Lunar Lion team, Masten Space Systems, Mojave, NASTAR, […]
ATLANTA, GA., April 23, 2014 (DSI PR) – Bitcoins took one small step towards space today with the announcement of a preliminary design contract between Jeff Garzik’s Dunvegan Space Systems and Deep Space Industries Inc. as part of a drive to develop an orbital system for the not-for-profit BitSat project. The BitSats will comprise an orbital node for the bitcoin network now on Earth with a constellation of tiny BitSats continuously broadcasting the latest bitcoin block from orbit, enhancing the resiliency of bitcoin in the event of disruptions or outages to the terrestrial bitcoin P2P mesh network.
“Private spaceflight is breaking big, driving down costs so that great ideas like BitSats are within reach of even volunteer nonprofits,” said Garzik, who is organizing a donation-supported campaign to build and fly the system. “We want to keep bitcoin healthy and free by finding alternative ways to distribute block chain data.”
SEATTLE, WA (Earth Day, April 22, 2014) — At a press conference on Tuesday at the
Seattle Museum of Flight, three prominent astronauts supporting the B612 Foundation presented a visualization of new data showing the surprising frequency at which the Earth is hit by asteroids. The astronauts were guests of the Seattle Museum for a special series of public events on Earth Day 2014.
About 20 years ago, NASA conducted a study of space solar power. A friend of mine who was involved said they determined that about six miracles were necessary to make it feasible, the most important being affordable transportation to orbit. Looks like that miracle is coming closer. Reusable launch vehicles now being developed — along with other advancements over the past two decades — could finally make beaming power down […]
CCiCap milestone completion status: Boeing: 17 of 20; SpaceX: 13 of 17; Sierra Nevada: 8 of 13.
Commercial Crew Return on Investment Report
April 2014
Milestones achieved by the Commercial Crew Program’s (CCP’s) partners continue to push commercial spacecraft and transportation systems from design to reality.Over the past two months, industry partners continued to demonstrate progress by successfully completing the following Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) milestones and preparing for significant milestones in the coming months:
Phil McAlister
NASA Commercial Crew Return
on Investment Report
On March 31, NASA announced that it was moving forward with the “Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities” efforts. The purpose of the no-exchange-of-funds agreements is to advance entrepreneurial efforts by facilitating access to NASA’s vast spaceflight resources including technical expertise, assessments, lessons learned, technologies, and data. The goal is to advance private sector development of integrated space capabilities so that the emerging products and services are commercially available to government and non-government customers within approximately the next five years. We sat down with NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development Director Phil McAlister for a Q&A session about this new activity.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL., April 23, 2014 (CASIS PR) – The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and The Boeing Company (Boeing) today announced a collaboration that will provide support to entrepreneurial researchers through the MassChallenge Startup Accelerator.
CASIS is the nonprofit organization responsible for managing and promoting research onboard the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory. Boeing is the International Space Station sustaining engineering contractor responsible for the successful integration of vehicle and payload hardware and software for the orbiting laboratory.