Some good news for SpaceX for its planned commercial spaceport on the Texas coast south of Brownsville: A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assessment regarding proposed rocket launches in Cameron County has brought SpaceX another step closer to planting its flag on Boca Chica Beach, officials indicated Thursday. The proposed rocket launch site has passed its latest round of scrutiny from the federal wildlife agency, which has issued its final […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
The Senate Commerce Committee approved a measure on Wednesday that would allow space companies to fly their reusable launch vehicles under experimental permits even after the Federal Aviation Administration issues launch license.
Currently, the experimental permit is superseded by launch license, making it more difficult to use the vehicle to test modifications later on.
Inaugural Vega flight. (Credits: ESA – S. Corvaja, 2012)
At the Space Tech Expo last week in Long Beach, Calif., representatives from Arianespace, Orbital Sciences Corporation, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) discussed the fierce competition in the industry and their plans for the future.
PANELISTS
Carissa Christensen
Managing Partner
The Tauri Group
(Moderator)
Gwynne Shotwell
President & Chief Operating Officer
SpaceX
Daniel J Collins
Chief Operating Officer
United Launch Alliance
Clay Mowry
President
Arianespace
Frank Culbertson
Executive Vice President
Orbital Sciences Corporation
A measure that will provide spaceflight companies with a 10-year exemption from certain property taxes has passed the California Senate. Senators voted 32-2 to approve the bill, which had already passed the Assembly by a 69-5 vote. The measure will go to Gov. Jerry Brown for signing if the Assembly agrees with the Senate’s amendments to it. As amended by the Senate, the property tax exemption would apply to Tangible […]
United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched the second mission in just seven days with the lift off of an Atlas V rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. (Credit: United Launch Alliance)
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla ., April 10, 2014 (ULA PR) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 on April 10 at 1:45 p.m. EDT. Designated NROL-67, the mission is in support of national defense.
“We are honored to deliver this national security asset to orbit together with our customers the NRO Office of Space Launch and the Air Force,” said Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs. “Successfully launching two missions from two different coasts in just seven days is a testament to the team’s one-launch-at-a-time focus and ULA’s commitment to mission success and schedule reliability.”
Conceptualized image of SNC’s Dream Chaser® spacecraft landing on the runway at Houston’s Ellington Field. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)
SPARKS, Nev., April 10, 2014 (SNC PR) – In a joint news conference held today at the Rice University Space Institute, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) and the Houston Airport System (HAS) announced plans to explore potential applications and multiple economic development opportunities presented by the combination of a Houston-based space port and SNC’s Dream Chaser® – a spacecraft that can land at the space port directly from low-Earth orbit.
GLASGOW, Scotland (Clyde Space PR) — Clyde Space, the Glasgow-based company putting Scotland’s first satellite into space, has announced record orders of around £3 million [£3.63 million/$5 million] for the last year. The record-breaking figure was announced by CEO, Craig Clark MBE, as he revealed new orders from the US Air Force Academy and the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-ISAB).
Craig also announced that the company was expanding because of increasing demand for its pace-setting products and was actively seeking new premises to enable it to treble the size of its manufacturing and design space to 10,000sq ft.
NASA workers at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wearing clean room “bunny suits,” prepare the LDSD test article for shipment later this month to Hawaii. LDSD will help land bigger space payloads on Mars or return them back to Earth. (Credit: NASA/JPL)
PASADENA, Calif. (NASA/JPL PR) — On April 9 reporters got a chance to don “bunny suits” (protective apparel that sometimes makes people look like large rabbits) and enter a NASA clean room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. In the room is NASA’s latest technology for landing large payloads on planets like Mars or Earth, being processed for shipping prior to testing next June.
NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project will be flying a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle into near-space this June from the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. The LDSD crosscutting demonstration mission will test breakthrough technologies that will enable large payloads to be safely landed on the surface of Mars, or other planetary bodies with atmospheres, including Earth. These new technologies will not only enable landing of larger payloads on Mars, but also allow access to much more of the planet’s surface by enabling landings at higher altitude sites.
During last week’s Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, Calif., a panel of NASA and private sector partners gathered to discuss their progress on returning U.S. crew launches to American soil.
Below is a summary of their comments that provides some insights into where each partner is in development and what lies ahead for the rest of the year.
NASA is expected to award the next round of commercial crew contracts later this year.
TEL AVIV (SpaceIL PR) — SpaceIL, a nonprofit organization aiming to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon and a participant in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) competition, announced today the receipt of a $16.4 million donation from the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Family Foundation.
This grant – coupled with tremendous grassroots support and funding from other key donors such as Morris Kahn and the Schusterman Family Foundation together with ongoing support from the Israel Aerospace Industries, the Israel Space Agency, Bezeq, Tel Aviv University, the Weizmann Institute and many others – gives the SpaceIL team a significant boost ahead in completing construction of their highly innovative spacecraft and moves them closer to the actual launch to the Moon. The funds also support SpaceIL’s core mission to create an Israeli “Apollo Effect,” inspiring the next generation to think differently about science, technology, engineering and math.