UPDATE: Looks like I got this wrong. D’oh! Will Pomerantz just said the announcement is coming up in the next week or so. Last week, CEO George Whitesides said to expect a “fun” announcement this week. I figured it would come during the Google Hangout with the founder’s son, but I was wrong. Get ready for some fun, VG style! Richard Branson’s son Sam will co-host a Galactic Hangout on […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
I can’t even take an afternoon off around Mojave without having to cover something. And, once again, my timing was fortuitous. I was driving past the spaceport on Highway 14 this afternoon, and what do I see but a gaggle of Virgin Galacticans all standing on the frontage road in their Virgin Galactic jackets staring out in rapt anticipation at the test area. I pulled off the highway in time […]
A 3-D printed rocket part blazes to life during a hot-fire test. (Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Olive)
by David Weaver
On Tuesday, President Obama announced that Chicago will be the site of a public-private partnership Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute.. Led by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, the agency will support the new Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute with tools including prize challenges, university research grants and expert advice and knowledge sharing.
The idea behind the new Chicago institute is that manufacturing is being transformed by digital design, which replaces the drawing table with the capacity to work and create in a virtual environment. It has the potential for producing a faster and cheaper next-generation aircraft engine, or drastically reducing the amount of scrap material associated with small manufacturing runs and speeding the design process among multiple suppliers.
My appearance on The John Batchelor Show last night is now archived on The Space Show blog: https://archived.thespaceshow.com/shows/2200-BWB-2014-02-26.mp3 I had a great discussion with John and David Livingston about the current status of the engine for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and the likely path of the flight test program for later this year. I want to thank John for having me on the show, and David for suggesting that I be […]
NYACK, N.Y. (SFF PR) — The Space Frontier Foundation’s Teachers in Space (TIS) project today announced that teacher’s applications are now being accepted for its Flight Experiment summer workshop.
Teachers in Space is a project to inspire student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging teachers with authentic astronaut training and real space science experiences combined with information and resources they bring into classrooms across America.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have complementary and interdependent interests in ensuring that commercially developed human space transportation systems for low-Earth orbit are safe and effective. The FAA regulates the U.S. commercial space transportation industry for public safety during launch and re-entry. NASA is enabling the development and demonstration of human space transportation systems via the Commercial Crew Program.
Boeing’s Commercial Crew Milestones Status Award Period: August 2012 – August 2014 Milestones: 20 Milestones Completed: 15 Milestones Remaining: 5 Total Possible Award: $480 Million Total Award to Date: $404.5 Million Total Award Pending: $75.5 Million No. Description Original Date Status Amount 1. Integrated System Review. Boeing shall conduct an Integrated Systems Review (ISR) which establishes and demonstrates a baseline design of the Commercial Crew Transportation System (CCTS) integrated vehicle […]
BOULDER, Colo. (Uwingu PR) — For years, space mission rover teams have taken it upon themselves to name landmarks on Mars.
Beginning today, the public can get involved in Mars exploration much the same way. Through Uwingu’s redesigned web site at www.uwingu.com, now anyone can help to create the Uwingu’s new Mars map, with names for all the approximately 500,000 unnamed but scientifically catalogued craters on Mars.
SpaceX CCiCAP Milestone Status Award Period: August 2012 – August 2014 Milestones: 17 Milestones Completed: 12 Milestones Remaining: 5 Total Possible Award: $460 Million Total Award to Date: $329 Million Total Award Remaining: $131 Million No. Description Original Date Status Amount 1 CCiCap Kickoff Meeting. SpaceX will hold a kickoff meeting at the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, or a nearby facility to review the current state of existing hardware, […]
An update from Aviation Week: The U.S. Air Force has ruled that the first Falcon 9 v1.1 flight conducted last fall does count as one of three required for Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to be certified to compete for boosting U.S national security payloads into orbit, as the upstart company works to take on the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly. Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of the Air Force Space […]