Artist’s impression of Ariane 6. (Credit: ESA)

ESA has tossed aside one of its key spending practices — juste retour — in an attempt to produce a new Ariane 6 launch vehicle that can compete with cheaper ones offered by SpaceX and Chinese and Indian providers.

Juste retour (“fair return”) is the space agency’s way of spreading work around to companies in different nations in proportion to what national governments  put into a program. The approach produced the highly reliable but expensive Ariane V, whose components and systems are produced throughout Europe.

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Satellite image of the Hudson Bay coastline taken on Dec. 20, 2013. (Credit: Axelspace)

A Japanese start-up company named Axelspace Corporation has released the first images from a commercial micro-satellite launched aboard a Dnepr rocket in November.

The WNISAT-1 weather satellite — built in partnership with Weathernews, Inc. —  produces images of Arctic ice for the shipping industry. Warming temperatures in the area have opened up a northern sea routes during the summer months that cut significant time off of voyages.

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Mojave Air & Space Port Saturday, Feb. 15 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is a historical aircraft display day and free family ‘educational’ event – kids are especially welcome! Local area pilots will display their unique one-of-a-kind and historic aircraft! Bring your camera, take lots of photos and visit with some of Mojave Airport’s famous pilots! Fly in and display your aircraft and enjoy visiting with people who speak […]

Spaceport Sweden won the Innovator of the Year Award at the Grand Travel Awards, the Oscars of the travel industry, which took place at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden on Thursday evening. Spaceport Sweden was recognized for the efforts developing space tourism in Sweden and positioning Kiruna as a world-leading destination offering adventures on the ground and in the air.

NASA EDGE looks at three more Technology Demonstration Missions; the Deep Space Atomic Clock, Solar Sails and the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator.

The FAA has approved Blue Origin’s request to expand operations at its West Texas test site “to include new development vehicles, which would use liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants.” “After reviewing and analyzing currently available data and information on existing conditions and the potential impacts of the Proposed Action, the FAA has determined that issuing experimental permits and/or launch licenses to Blue Origin for operation of suborbital RLVs at […]

This is a fully outfitted test version of The Boeing Company’s CST-100 at the company’s Houston Product Support Center in Texas. (Credit:
NASA/Robert Markowitz)

HOUSTON, Feb. 13, 2014 — Boeing’s [NYSE: BA] Commercial Crew Program (CCP) recently completed a hardware design review and software safety test, bringing it closer to launching the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft that will return Americans to space.

Boeing completed a Critical Design Review for the the system’s Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA), which connects CST-100 to the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. The CDR, which included wind tunnel tests verifying flight stability, confirmed that the LVA design is suitable for production.

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NYACK, NY (SFF PR) — The Board of Directors of the Space Frontier Foundation announced today that Bob Werb, Co-Founder and long-time Chairman of the Board, has retired from the position, and that they have unanimously elected space entrepreneur Jeff Feige to take over as the Foundation’s new Chairman.

“Bob’s extraordinary vision and leadership permeates every corner of our organization,” said Foundation President James Pura. “As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of our founding, you can look back at 25 years of his passionate contribution of ideas, common sense, and business excellence to nearly everything we’ve done to advocate for an open frontier in space for everyone.”

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Mark Kelly

MOJAVE, Calif. (AVBOT PR) — Capt. Mark Kelly, record-setting American astronaut, retired US Navy combat pilot, and husband of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords, is the keynote speaker for Southern California’s Antelope Valley Business Outlook Conference, Friday, Feb. 21, 2014.

Kelly, who commanded six NASA Space Shuttle missions, and is one of only two astronauts to have visited the International Space Station on four missions, will address an expected capacity audience attending the day-long business conference at Mojave Air & Space Port’s newly completed Stuart Witt Conference Center .

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Credit: 4Frontiers Corporation

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (4Frontiers PR) — NewSpace Center, LLC, a 4Frontiers Corporation subsidiary, launched an initial private placement offering today that is intended to finance the first phase of INTERSPACE Florida, a real science interactive space themed destination located on a 75 acre master planned and zoned spaceport territory site eight miles from Kennedy Space Center at the Titusville Cocoa Airport (TICO).

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