SpaceShipTwo lights its engine as WhiteKnightTwo flies overhead. (Credit: Ken Brown)

Parabolic Arc is pleased to launch a new series looking at job openings here in Mojave. Today we’re taking a closer look at Virgin Galactic, which plans to launch commercial space tourism later this year. The space tourism company, which says that safety is its North Star, needs a vice president of safety.

This position has been advertised on the Virgin Galactic website for months now. Jon Turnipseed is listed as holding that position on Our Team section of the Virgin Galactic website. Oddly enough, multiple sources in Mojave say he has been gone from that post since around the beginning of last summer even as SpaceShipTwo has performed two powered flights. So, this must be a difficult position to fill.

UPDATE VIA WILL POMERANTZ: Some info on that specific job opening, since the rumor mill is churning out bad data (as seems to be the case so often): Jon Turnipseed’s last day as a full time employee was Dec 19, but he is still serving as a contractor to the company. Jon left big shoes to fill when he retired after spending several years here at VG/TSC (in addition to a great career with the US Air Force), but we are now interviewing our final candidates for the job. Of course, we remain open to great candidates who haven’t yet gotten in touch—it’s  important to get the best possible person for the job!

Just how hard is that position to fill? Well, let’s look at the duties and requirements, shall we?

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — In 2013, NASA kicked off the Asteroid Redirect Mission and the Asteroid Grand Challenge, collectively known as the Asteroid Initiative. On June 18, we issued a Request for Information to seek innovative ideas that could help NASA refine the objectives of the Asteroid Initiative and initial ARM concepts, to explore alternative mission concepts, and to broaden participation in the mission and planetary defense. Those ides were discussed at a fall 2013 workshop. Today, NASA posted the final report summarizing the workshop discussion and recommendations.

An unprecedented response followed the release of the RFI: the agency received 402 responses, 40 percent of which were from individuals and members of the general public.

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X-51A WaveRider

RESTON, VA (AIAA PR)  – The X-51A WaveRider team has won the 2014 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation’s Award for Excellence. The team will receive the award on April 30 at the AIAA Spotlight Awards Gala at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, in Washington, D.C.

The team is being honored “for the demonstration of the feasibility of sustained air breathing hypersonic flight by achieving a 300 second flight at Mach 5.”

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden speaks to NASA personnel and others during a wreath laying ceremony as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Friday, Jan. 31, 2014, at Arlington National Cemetery. The wreaths were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Message from the Administrator: Day of Remembrance

Today we pause in our normal routines and reflect on the contributions of those who lost their lives trying to take our nation farther into space. On our annual Day of Remembrance, please join me in giving thanks for the legacy of the STS-107 Columbia crew; the STS-51L Challenger crew; the Apollo 1 crew; and Mike Adams, the first in-flight fatality of the space program as he piloted the X-15 No. 3 on a research flight.

These men and women were our friends, family and colleagues, and we will never forget their lives and passion to push us farther and achieve more.  They have our everlasting love, respect and gratitude.

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Video Caption: We follow certain entrepreneurs, public officials, and private citizens that are actively shaping a new kind of space race, and in the process, redefining what it means to explore the cosmos. This pilot episode of the new monthly web series Private Space, features an interview with California State Sen. Steve Knight, the lead author of California’s Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act. Learn more about the series on […]

Jordan Shulman

ATLANTA, GA (GO PR) — Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (GO) welcomes Jordan Shulman as Financial Manager.

Operating under GO’s CFO, David Horn, Mr. Shulman will develop and implement financial models and perform business operations tasks, including accounting, payroll, and contracting. He will also support business development tasks such as interfacing with investors, valuations, and program planning.  With GO’s continued growth and success, the need for a Financial Manager becomes imperative.

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Dream Chaser (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)

SPARKS, Nev., January 30, 2014 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces the completion of the Dream Chaser® Incremental Critical Design Review (CDR) with the completion of Milestone 10a under its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement with NASA.

Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC’s Space Systems made the announcement at the Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS®) during his keynote address. RAMS is the premier event in the reliability, availability, and maintainability engineering disciplines. The RAMS event attracted hundreds of safety and reliability practitioners and engineering leaders from around the world.

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Facing a tight budget and uncertain start-up schedule, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority has scaled back a $20 million plan to build a visitor’s center at Spaceport America and a welcome center in Truth or Consequences (TorC). The new $7.5 million plan would include the $6 million welcome center in TorC  where tourists would gather to board buses for Spaceport America. The planned $13 million visitor’s center at the spaceport […]

Credit: David Wilson, Spaceport America

The delay in the start of Virgin Galactic flights has forced the New Mexico Spaceport Authority to partially fund operations of Spaceport America from a gross receipts tax originally approved to pay for the facility’s construction. It’s a practice one state senator now wants to end but which the spaceport’s management says is essentially to keeping the lights on.

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The California State Assembly passed a 10-year tax exemption on Wednesday that would exempt SpaceX and other commercial space companies in the state from paying property taxes on their spacecraft and properties. “With this bill, California can incubate and grow this exciting new industry and create thousands of good paying manufacturing jobs right here in our state,” said state Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), who authored the bill. “I introduced this […]