Proton rocket launch (Credit: NASA)

Today’s successful launch of ESA’s Gaia spacecraft from French Guiana kicked off a busy global holiday flight schedule for the final days of 2013. Seven launches are on the schedule through New Year’s Eve, although it’s not clear whether all of them will be conducted.

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UPDATE: The launch has been rescheduled for Jan. 3, 2014. Joe Abbott of the Waco Tribune-Herald reports that SpaceX has rescheduled the launch of its Thaicom 6 satellite for Dec. 31. It will be SpaceX’s fourth launch of the year and its second commercial communications satellite mission. The New Year’s Eve launch of the Falcon 9 rocket will take place from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. If […]

XCOR expects to move from Mojave into its new digs in Midland, Texas sometime next summer while officials there report progress in obtaining a spaceport license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): [XCOR COO Andrew] Nelson expects the first and second phases of hangar renovations to be finished by May and July. He said XCOR will relocate after renovations after completed. After narrowing down contractors to three finalists, the company […]

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

SEATTLE, Washington (Space Angels PR) – The Space Frontier Foundation announced on October 25th that Generation Orbit Launch Services Inc. was awarded the $100,000 first-­place prize of the 2013 NewSpace Business Plan Competition held at Stanford University. As a Sponsor of the competition, Space Angels Network members contributed to the screening, coaching and judging of the business plans. As the winner of the competition, Generation Orbit will now have the opportunity to present to the members of Space Angels Network in December to build on the company’s success and potentially attract new investors.

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The planned SpaceShipTwo flight from Mojave was scrubbed this morning due to weather. The skies were covered in rain clouds and violated required conditions for a test flight. The weather is supposed to be worse on Thursday, and Scaled Composites has off on Friday as the holiday season begins. So, it appears there will not be another SpaceShipTwo flight until January.

San Francisco, California, December 18, 2013 (Planet Labs PR) – Planet Labs announced today that it has raised $52 million in Series B financing. New investors joining this round include prominent technology investor Yuri Milner, Industry Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Lux Capital, and Ray Rothrock. Planet Labs’ existing investors include DFJ, Capricorn, O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures (OATV), Founders Fund, First Round Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Data Collective, and AME Cloud Ventures.

“Planet Labs is revolutionizing the spacecraft sector,” said Yuri Milner. “Its passionate and high performance team is utilizing elegant science and sophisticated technology in pushing the boundaries of what was thought to be possible in satellite manufacturing and deployment” he added.

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Astronaut Michael Hopkins sets up cameras to record as he works on the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) facility cable configuration for the Constrained Vapor Bubble-2 (CVB-2) operations. (Credit: NASA)

ISS Science Highlights
Week of Dec. 2, 2013

NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins spoke with primary and junior high schools in Brzeznica, Poland, through the ISS Ham Radio from the International Space Station. This is the 20th event count for Expedition 37/38, and the 872nd event count for the program. This technology brings the students and the station astronauts “voice to voice” for a question-and-answer session. In preparation for the “space chats,” students research the station and learn about radio waves, amateur radio and related topics. Before their scheduled contact with the station, they prepare a list of questions, many about possible career choices and science activities. As the laboratory passes over a school or another location that receives a signal from the station, there is typically a five- to-eight-minute window to make contact with the crew.

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Ten years ago, SpaceShipOne flew under power for the first time, breaking the sound barrier in the skies over Mojave and commencing a successful series of flights that culminated in the winning of the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Scaled Composites chose Dec. 17, 2003 — the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers historic first powered flight — to light the candle on their suborbital space plane. Pilot Brian Binnie […]

Video Caption: Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is launching what no reality TV show has done before with the Milky Way Mission. This format is a competition with local celebrities in which the winner will fly into space with us. Nederland 1, a Dutch broadcaster, has commissioned a season of the reality serie, created by Tuvalu Media and Simpel Media. Sony will focus on spreading the show to the international market.

Good evening, everyone. Looks like Scaled Composites is going to try to get a SpaceShipTwo powered flight in Wednesday morning before the rainstorm hits on Thursday and everyone scatters for the holidays on Friday. As always, your trusted correspondent will be live on the scene, Tweeting away @spacecom and giving you all the latest news and information. If you are already following me, great! Thanks you for your support. If […]