Weather permitting, troops clothed in ragged Continental Army uniforms will gather on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River this afternoon to reenact a crucial Christmas Day river crossing that took place 237 years ago. George Washington’s army crossed the river on Christmas evening in the teeth of a violent Nor’easter and defeated Hessians mercenaries at Trenton the following day. This victory — and their subsequent battles against British troops […]

Space News has an update on the U.S. Air Force’s certification process for allowing SpaceX to compete for launch contracts: The U.S. Air Force expects to decide by early 2014 if the maiden launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket will count toward a new process to qualify the company to launch national security assets, a service spokeswoman said. Officials with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) expect credit for the […]

Generation Orbit’s planned launch system. (Credit: Generation Orbit)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (JAA PR) — The Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) has signed its first tenant agreement at Cecil Spaceport with Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (GO).

Atlanta-based GO will utilize Cecil’s hangar space, its 12,500-foot runway and the safe flight paths that have already been coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), among other things, to support its commercial flight and horizontal launch program.

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Dream Chaser flight test. (Credit: SNC)

SPARKS, Nev., December 23, 2013 (SNC PR) — Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces the successful completion of the second Dream Chaser® Space System (DCSS) Integrated Systems Safety Analysis Review, marking the company’s completion of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative Milestone six. This critical safety review evaluated not only the Dream Chaser spacecraft, but also the launch vehicle, vehicle integration and the ground and mission systems, which comprise the entire DCSS.

Milestone six represents a major step forward in the maturation of the systems safety and reliability analysis, which is critical to achieving a safe and effective design of the DCSS. During the milestone review, SNC provided NASA with significant and detailed systems safety analysis products including hazard analysis and failure tolerance analysis of the entire DCSS.

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s Commercial Crew Program partners continue to meet all scheduled milestones, bringing the nation closer to its goal of having a U.S. capability for human access to space and ending reliance on foreign vehicles.

SpaceX recently completed five milestones:

• The Human Certification Plan Review, which laid out SpaceX’s plans for certification of the design of the spacecraft, launch vehicle, and ground and mission operations systems.
• The On-Orbit and Entry Preliminary Design Review, which successfully demonstrated that the overall system preliminary design for orbit, rendezvous and docking with the ISS and entry light regimes met the company’s requirements with acceptable risks and within schedule constraints.
• The In-Flight Abort Test Review, which demonstrated the maturity of the in-flight abort test article design and the concept of operations for the abort test.
• The Safety Review, which demonstrated the crew transportation system design and SpaceX processes.
• The Falcon 9 Flight Review, which demonstrated Falcon 9 launch vehicle performance, including structures, dynamics, propulsion, avionics and software.

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The 23 winners with Buzz Aldrin. (Credit: SXC)

ORLANDO, Fla. (SXC PR) — Early December an epic event was organized by AXE in Orlando, Florida. Over a 100 participants from all over the world competed a 3-day space academy to win a ticket to space with SXC.

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This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. 1. Monday, Dec. 23, 2013: 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CSTT): This is our lead off program to docment a decade of space development leading up to the Dec. 31, 2013 program. This show is an archive recording from Dec. 30, 2003. Our featured guest for this Golden Oldie is TOM OLSON. Tom gives us a 2003 year […]

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA is taking steps to make spacewalking on an asteroid a reality. In the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, engineers are testing a modified version of the pumpkin-orange Advanced Crew Escape System (ACES) worn by space shuttle astronauts during launch and reentry for use by future crew in the Orion spacecraft.

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Sounding rocket launch. (Credit: NASA)

DULLES, VA, 19 December 2013 (ORB PR) — Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, announced today that Orbital’s NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract II (NSROC II) team at Wallops Island, Virginia recently completed its 40th consecutive successful mission over the last 24 months for NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program (NSRP).

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Expedition 33 flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency performs ultrasound eye imaging in the Columbus laboratory of the International Space Station. Human research adds to model animal studies to build knowledge of eye health during spaceflight. (Credit: NASA)

Those who travel to space are rewarded with a beautiful sight – planet Earth. But the effects of space travel on the human sense of sight aren’t so beautiful. More than 30 percent of astronauts who returned from two-week space shuttle missions and 60 percent who spent six months aboard the International Space Station were diagnosed with eye problems. Two recent investigations examined mechanisms that may explain eye changes in spaceflight, help find ways to minimize this health risk to astronauts and eventually prevent and treat eye diseases on Earth.

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