AMSTERDAM, 13 December 2013 (SXC PR) — Earlier this month, Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) moved its headquarters to Spaces, the flexible office building at Amsterdam Zuidas. From here, the young Dutch company coordinates its worldwide marketing and sales efforts. SXC is currently preparing for the first test flights with the XCOR Lynx spacecraft, which are scheduled halfway into the next year. Michiel Mol (CEO): “Our previous office in Amsterdam Zuid […]
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Doug Messier
RD-180 test firing. (Credit: NASA)
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has rejected motions from ULA and engine supplier RD-Amross to dismiss an anti-trust lawsuit brought against them by Orbital Sciences Corporation, Space News reports.
Orbital wants Russian RD-180 engines to replace the AJ-26 engines the company uses in its new Antares launch vehicle. However, ULA has exclusive use of the RD-180 engines for its Atlas V rocket through a supplier agreement with RD-Amross, which is a joint venture between United Technologies Corp. and NPO Energomash of Russia.
ULA and RD-Amross asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that Orbital has viable alternatives to the AJ-26 engines and that RD-180s cannot be sold to foreign parties without the approval of the Russian government. Thus, Orbital could not prove the $500 to $1.5 million in damages it is seeking over ULA’s monopoly.
This is kind of cool. The Government Accountability Office footnoted Parabolic Arc in its decision to deny Blue Origin’s protest concerning the privatization of launch Pad 39A. I think it’s the first time we’ve been cited in a government report. Woo-hoo! And while we’re on the topic, check out this bit of sarcasm from NASA that GAO quoted about its potential future need for “flux capacitors and warp drives.”
DARPA’s MOIRE telescope deployed in Earth orbit. (Credit: DARPA)
BOULDER, Colo., Dec. 6, 2013 (Ball Aerospace PR) — Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. has demonstrated unprecedented telescope technologies using ultra-lightweight polymer membrane optics.
Ball is incrementally demonstrating technology needed to deploy a large, 20-meter-diameter, lightweight space-based telescope in geosynchronous orbit as part of the Membrane Optic Imager Real-time Exploitation (MOIRE) program, led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Most recently, Ball completed construction and testing of one-eighth of a 5-meter-diameter annular segmented telescope to verify functionality of the MOIRE design.
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFNS) — An Atlas V rocket launched on Dec. 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., carried a U.S. Southern Command sponsored nanosatellite into space — and with it, the potential for more reliable and less expensive communications for troops around the world.
The nanosatellite, about the size of a loaf of bread and weighing just 11 pounds, piggybacked during the launch on a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office headquartered in Chantilly, Va., SOUTHCOM officials said.
That small package carries big hopes for SOUTHCOM, which spearheaded the demonstration project to help overcome communications challenges in the vast mountainous and densely forested terrain within Latin America, Juan Hurtado, the SOUTHCOM’s science and technology adviser, told American Forces Press Service during an interview from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Launch Pad 39A with the space shuttle Endeavour. (Credit: NASA)
Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin has lost a round in his battle with SpaceX’s Elon Musk over who will control former space shuttle launch Pad 39A in Florida.
In a 12-page decision, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has denied a protest by Blue Origin over the approach NASA is taking to commercialize the former space shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center.
WALLOPS ISLAND, Virg. (TIS PR) — When Amy McCormick’s class developed their science experiment studying Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), they could only dream of flying it to space. Their experiment won the Teachers In Space annual spaceflight contest and later this month, their dream will become a reality when it launches to the International Space Station (ISS). Tucked into a storage rack aboard the Cygnus (along with 22 other experiments flying as part of Mission 4 of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program), these experiments will blast off to the ISS on top of an Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (M.A.R.S.). This will be the first commercial flight to the ISS provided by Orbital Sciences. SpaceX is the only other commercial company providing ISS resupply.
SOAR spaceplane atop an A-300. (Credit: S3)
Gran Canary (Spain), December 12, 2013 (S3 PR) — The aerospace company, Swiss Space Systems (S3), officially inaugurated its daughter company, S3 Spain, in the presence of the Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism M. Jose Manuel Soria Lopez, representatives of the local and national authorities as well as international guests. The company will be run by Augusto Caramagno.
Seattle, Washington, December 11, 2013 (Spaceflight PR) – Space Angels Network has announced a sponsorship from Spaceflight Inc. (Spaceflight). Under this sponsorship Spaceflight will work with Space Angels Network applicant and portfolio companies and provide free launch services consultation as a way to foster new small-satellite start-ups. Additionally, Spaceflight will be the preferred service provider for the orbital launch of small payloads.
SpaceShipTwo performed a glide flight over the Mojave this morning. Pilots Mark Stucky of Scaled Composites and Mike Masucci of Virgin Galactic tested the ship’s nitrous oxide dump system before separating from the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft and gliding to a landing at the Mojave Air and Space Port. SpaceShipTwo had a shiny coating of reflective Kapton on the inboard sections of its two tail booms. The material is designed to […]