Video Caption: Join our three expert panelists to find out about opportunities for funding science with venture capital and other commercial opportunities. Panel: Amaresh Kollipara Managing Partner, Earth2Orbit, LLC Principal, Space Angels Network Amaresh is a Founder and Managing Partner of Earth2Orbit, LLC, which is an aerospace consulting firm and global provider of launch services. Earth2Orbit is working with the Indian Space Research Organization to provide commercial launch services to […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
OVIEDO, Fla. (BST PR) — Black Sky Training in their constant effort to improve safety and training sets yet another milestone in the Commercial Space Industry.
On January 22, 2014, FAA/AST changed Commercial Space and Commercial Space training forever. After 7 years of development and hard work, Black Sky Training has received a first ever approval for a Rocket Powered Transition course.
Government regulation of commercial spaceflight could come sooner rather than later, if the FAA’s chief regulator of the industry gets his way. The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), under reauthorization legislation signed in February 2012, is barred from writing detailed safety regulations for commercial human spaceflight until October 2015, unless there is a serious accident in the industry before then. The Commercial Space Transportation Advisory […]
A couple of pieces of news from Georgia, where Camden County officials last month commissioned an environmental impact statement for the site of a proposed coastal spaceport and also visited the state capital to promote the project.
County administrator Steve Howard told the board that, after much dialogue, the property owners of the proposed spaceport site off Interstate 95 Exit 7 finalized a confidentiality agreement this week. An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which costs $745,000, was approved by the board of commissioners and includes many steps with private companies, the Federal Aviation Administration and a private EIS consultant assigned to Camden’s officials.
NASA Centennial Challenges Program
Small Spacecraft Challenges Request for Information
Overview
The Centennial Challenges program is seeking input on two challenges being considered for start in 2014. Both challenges would be to design, build, and deliver flight-qualified small spacecraft capable of advanced operations near the moon and beyond.
The first challenge will focus on finding innovative solutions to deep space communications with small spacecraft, while the second focuses on primary propulsion for small spacecraft. Together, these challenges are expected to contribute to opening deep space exploration to non-government spacecraft for the first time.
The proposed challenges would be NASA’s first prize competitions demonstrated and competed in deep space and potentially would be carried into trans-lunar trajectory of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) on the first launch (EM-1) of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion planned for late 2017.
The New Mexico Senate Corporations and Transportation Committee has endorsed a bill that would prohibit Spaceport America from using excess taxes collected from Dona Ana and Sierra counties to fund its operations. The measure, introduced by Republican Sen. Lee Cotter of Las Cruces, would require that funds collected from gross receipts taxes to pay off construction bond debt. Operational money would have to come out of the general state budget. […]
ATLANTA, GA (GO PR) — Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (GO) has successfully passed a major project milestone in the development of its GOLauncher 2, a dedicated nanosatellite launch vehicle. The GOLauncher 2 System Requirements Review was completed on Thursday January 23rd, 2014.
Members of the GO team gathered in Atlanta to conduct the review, including representatives from SpaceWorks, Calspan, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Ventions, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, and mv2space. The goals of the review included assessing the team’s performance and functional requirements for the system, the current design status, the overall GOLauncher program plan, and the program’s current risk posture.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talks to CBS News about the need to restore America’s human spaceflight capability, the dangers of being dependent on Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and plans to settle Mars.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL (January 28, 2014) – Representatives from Florida’s aerospace industry will visit Tallahassee on March 12, 2014, to participate in Florida Space Day and share with legislators the opportunities the industry brings to Florida and the nation’s space program.
Former NASA astronaut Bob Crippen, pilot of the first orbital test flight of the Shuttle program and former NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Director, will be making scheduled appearances throughout the event. Space-related exhibits will be available on the third floor Rotunda of the Capitol.
A Xombie technology demonstrator from Masten Space Systems, Mojave, Calif., ascends from its pad at Mojave Air and Space Port on a test for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The vehicle is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing experimental rocket. It is being used in collaboration with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to evaluate performance of JPL’s Fuel Optimal Large Divert Guidance (G-FOLD), a new algorithm for planetary pinpoint landing of spacecraft. Image (Credit: NASA/Masten)
MOJAVE, Calif. (Astrobotic PR) — When Astrobotic’s Griffin lander descends to the lunar surface, it will precisely target a small landing ellipse (a small area where it might land) and autonomously maneuver to avoid hazards such as rocks bigger than 25cm and slopes greater than 15°. In last month’s blog post, we introduced the landing sensor package and the concept of map registration – a technique that matches (“registers”) a location in an in-flight image to the same location on a map.
This week, an Astrobotic team led by Kevin Peterson is headed out to Masten Space Systems, located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, CA, to fly the landing sensor package and software system on the Masten Xombie suborbital rocket.