Falcon 9 lifts off with the Thaicom-6 satellite. (Credit: SpaceX)

The head of the U.S. Air Force Space Command explained on Tuesday why the service is putting SpaceX’s Falcon 9 through a thorough evaluation process before allowing the rocket to fly military payloads.

If a rocket failed, the loss of a national security satellite potentially worth more than $1.5 billion would be a bigger setback than losing food, clothing and other station supplies, Gen. William Shelton told the National Space Club Florida Committee.

“So there’s a big difference,” he said…

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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. NASA’s Mars-bound spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS) unveiled a guarantee program for its Atlas V rocket this week while rival International Launch Services (ILS) said it is working toward launching dual satellites aboard the Russian Proton rocket.

The companies made the announcements, which are likely aimed at meeting the growing competitive threat posed by SpaceX, during the Satellite 2014 conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this week.

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NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program has selected for funding proposals from Paragon Space Development Corp. and Lynntech, Inc. for the development of systems that can convert carbon dioxide into methane on Mars. The projects will receive SBIR Phase II funding.

“Paragon Space Development Corporation (Paragon) and ENrG Incorporated (ENrG) are teaming to provide a highly efficient reactor for carbon monoxide/carbon dioxide (CO/CO2) conversion into methane (CH4). The system is a gravity-independent, compact, leak-tight, Solid Oxide Electrolyzer (SOE) system with embedded Sabatier reactors (ESR),” according to the proposal summary.

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If you missed the first episode, or what to watch it again, here you go.

Dream Chaser (Credit: NASA)

SPARKS, Nev., March 11, 2014 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces the expansion of its Dream Chaser^® program team and scope of work in Huntsville, Ala., with the signing of a Space Act Agreement (SAA) Annex with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and a Teaming Agreement with Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE).

During today’s press conference at MSFC, Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC’s Space Systems, presented details of the two new agreements that advance the Dream Chaser spacecraft to enable science payload operations and technology development in support of continued growth and utilization of space and the International Space Station (ISS).

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Silvio Miglio Sergio and Cabral Cavalcanti. (Credit: SpaceMETA)

RIO DE JANEIRO and SAO PAULO, Brazil (SpaceMETA PR )– Billionaire Silvio Miglio Fund (SILVIO MANOEL LAPA MIGLIO) announce today the investment in first private Brazilian aerospace startup SpaceMETA ( www.spacemeta.com). – We are Here to do the Impossible Things …

Silvio Miglio is a Brazilian entrepreneur with skill in participating in Big Challenges and structural projects in several sectors. As a business man, Mr. Silvio Manoel Lapa Miglio has succeed in several sectors and actually he is the bigger ethanol producer in the Sergipe state in NE of Brasil.

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s Asteroid Data Hunter contest series will offer $35,000 in awards over the next six months to citizen scientists who develop improved algorithms that can be used to identify asteroids.

This contest series is being conducted in partnership with Planetary Resources Inc. of Bellevue, Wash. The first contest in the series will kick off on March 17. Prior to the kick off, competitors can create an account on the contest series website and learn more about the rules and different phases of the contest series by going to:

https://bit.ly/AsteroidHunters

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CubeSat

Continuing our look NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Phase II program, we examine three proposals for advanced propulsion technologies that the agency has selected for awards.

NASA selected the Busek Company, of Nantick, Mass., for two SBIR Phase II awards. One involves the development and testing of a flight-weight, 5N-class green monopropellant thruster. The second involves the development of a high-throughput nominal 100-W Hall effect thruster.

The space agency also selected a proposal submitted by CU Aerospace of Champaign, Ill., to develop its CubeSat High Impulse Propulsion System (CHIPS). The company is also using a non-toxic propellant in the system.

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