Sen. Martin Heinrich (R-NM) has introduced a measure that would allow experimental permits issued for commercial reusable launch vehicles to remain active after a launch license is issued for the vehicles. Currently, the experimental permits are no longer valid after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issues a launch or re-entry license. This arrangement makes it more difficult for companies to flight test vehicles and make changes in them. The proposed […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Deep Space Industries CEO David Gump talks about asteroid mining.
Rep. Steven Palazzo, (R-MS), chairman of the House Space Subcommittee, has released a rather ominous statement in which he uses frayed relations between the United States and Russia to take a hatchet to NASA’s budget. I’ve put the key phrase in bold. “When the Obama Administration ended the Constellation program, our nation was forced to depend upon Russian rockets to carry American astronauts into space and maintain a U.S. presence […]
Silicon Valley, CA (SFF PR) — This summer, Digital Solid State Propulsion’s microthruster will be deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpinSat microsatellite, a project of the Naval Research Laboratory, in a partnership with Digital Solid State Propulsion (DSSP), Inc.
The missions’ objective is to demonstrate and characterize the on-orbit performance of the ESP (Electrically-controlled Solid Propellant) technology in space. This is an enabling technology for the small satellite community that will allow small satellites to perform in-space maneuvers. In 2012, DSSP won 2nd place and a cash prize of $10,000 at the Newspace Business Plan Competition (BPC), as part of the Space Frontier Foundations’ annual NewSpace Conference.
One of the largest composite rocket propellant tanks ever manufactured is prepared for transport on NASA’s Super Guppy airplane. (Credit: Boeing)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — For more than 50 years, metal tanks have carried fuel to launch rockets and propel them into space, but one of the largest composite tanks ever manufactured may change all that. This spring, that tank–known as the composite cryotank–is set to undergo a series of tests at extreme pressures and temperatures similar to those experienced during spaceflight.
Garvey Spacecraft Corporation recently conducted a successful static test on a nanosat launch vehicle (NLV) engine at the Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) range near Koehn Lake in California. The three-second burn conducted on March 23 was the first time the company had used liquid oxygen with propylene in place of ethanol on its 5,000 lbf-thrust NLV main engine, Founder John Garvey tells Parabolic Arc. “Only 3 seconds, but got […]
The Celebrity Fight Night charity will auction off a flight aboard XCOR’s Lynx suborbital space plane during its annual fund-raising event on April 12. From the charity’s website: John Corbett and Space Shuttle Commander Rick Searfoss invite you to the ultimate “Right Stuff” experience—at the edge of space! Join them for space flight training, a space suit fitting and an actual flight to the edge of space onboard the XCOR Lynx. […]
The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft launches from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 41, Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Space News reports that seven U.S. Senators are pushing to open more U.S. Air Force launches to competition from SpaceX and other providers:
In an April 1 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the senators said the decision to shrink the number of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle missions eligible for competition to seven from 14 should be “immediately reviewed.”
NEW YORK (Discovery Communications PR) — Science Channel and Discovery Channel today announced that the networks will serve as television homes for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, a $30 million competition for privately-funded teams to land an unmanned craft on the moon by December 31, 2015.
The networks will chronicle the historic race with a miniseries event, following teams from around the world as they race to complete the mission requirements of the Grand Prize; to land a craft on the surface of the moon, travel 500 meters, and transmit live pictures and video back to earth. Science Channel and Discovery Channel will follow the entire process including testing, lift-off, and live coverage of the winning lunar landing, which is estimated to take place in 2015. The announcement was made at Discovery Communications’ annual Upfront presentation in New York.
PITTSBURGH (Astrobotic PR) — Astrobotic’s rover development group at Carnegie Mellon University is developing the Mobility Testbed – a rover to facilitate testing representative of the rover that will fly on Astrobotic’s mission to the Moon’s Lacus Mortis region.