(Credits: NASA/JPL/NEAR and Galileo missions)

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA and Planetary Resources Inc., of Bellevue, Wash., are partnering to develop crowd-sourced software solutions to enhance detection of near-Earth objects using agency-funded data. The agreement is NASA’s first partnership associated with the agency’s Asteroid Grand Challenge.

Under a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement, Planetary Resources will facilitate the use of NASA-funded sky survey data and help support the algorithm competition and review results. NASA will develop and manage the contests and explore use of the best solutions for enhancing existing survey programs. The first contest is expected to launch early in 2014 based on Planetary Resources’ and Zooniverse’s Asteroid Zoo platform currently in development. The partnership was announced Thursday at NASA’s Asteroid Initiative Ideas Synthesis Workshop in Houston.

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Dryden Flight Research Center has released a solicitation entitled “NASA Announcement of Flight Opportunities (AFO) for Payloads Maturing Crosscutting Technologies that Advance Multiple Future Space Missions to Flight Readiness Status.” The current solicitation cycle, AFO #8, provides access to parabolic flights and to flights on suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicles (sRLV).

Applications are due on or before 11:59 PM Eastern Time on January 16, 2014, and selections will be announced in March 2014 (target).

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One of the first images released by Planet Labs. (Credit: Planet Labs)

Two Planet Labs satellites — Dove 3 and Dove 4 — were sent aboard a Ukrainian-Russian Dnepr in the second record-breaking launch of the week.

The American start-up company’s two Earth imaging satellites were among 32 spacecraft successfully deployed into orbit. This breaks the record of 29 satellites launched by a U.S. Air Force Minotaur I rocket on Tuesday evening.

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Credit: XCOR

Prague, Czech Republic and Mojave, California, USA (XCOR/CSO PR)  – The Czech Space Office (CSO) announced today the signing of an exclusive agreement with XCOR Aerospace. The agreement authorizes the CSO to become an Authorized Payload Integrator of XCOR’s Lynx®, a rocket-powered suborbital spacecraft currently being built at XCOR’s headquarters in Mojave, California.

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Prepared Statement of Stuart O. Witt
CEO and General Manager
Mojave Air and Space Port
Hearing on “Commercial Space”
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Subcommittee on Space Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
U.S. House of Representatives

Chairman Palazzo, Ranking Member Edwards, Chairman Smith, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address the subcommittee this morning. My name is Stuart Witt, and I am the CEO and General Manager of the Mojave Air and Space Port, which is located in southeast Kern County, California.

Many of my tenants call Mojave the Silicon Valley of Commercial Spaceflight. I’m just proud to lead the nation’s only private experimental flight test center, a place where Innovation Takes Flight.

Our topic today is America’s commercial space industry, and my message to you from the high desert is that American engineers and entrepreneurs in Mojave and other places across the country are successfully revolutionizing America’s future in space. This is a 100% good news story. What my Mojave tenants require from elected representatives in Washington is continued permission, and modest encouragement, rather than obstacles.

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Congress wants to extent a cost-sharing agreement between industry and the federal government to cover losses from commercial launch accidents beyond its expiration date at the end of the year. The main question seems to be how long of an extension will be passed.

Legislators in the House have introduced a bi-partisan measure, H.R. 3547, to extend the protections by one year. Over in the Senate, Bill Nelson (D-FL) has introduced S. 1753 to extend the indemnification regime by three years.

Under the system, commercial launch providers must cover third-party losses up to $500 million. The government will step in to pay any losses from $500 million to $1.5 billion. Anything above that level reverts back to the company.

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Zarya, the first component of the International Space Station, launches flawlessly at 1:40 a.m. EST on November 20, 1998, from Kazahkstan (Credit: NASA)

Via NASA — Nov. 20, 1998, was a day to mark in history. The Russian Space Agency , now known as Roscosmos, launched a Proton rocket that lifted the pressurized module called Zarya, or “sunrise,” into orbit. This launch would truly be the dawn of the largest international cooperation effort in space to ever come to light.

Zarya was the first piece of the International Space Station. Also known as the Functional Cargo Block (FGB), it would provide a nucleus of orientation control, communications and electrical power while the station waited for its other elements, including the Zvezda service module and Unity.

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BOULDER, CO, November 20, 2013 (Golden Spike PR) – The Golden Spike Company announced today it has created a Lunar Science Advisory Board to help guide the company’s development of the world’s first private human lunar expedition capability.

The seven inaugural members of the Lunar Science Advisory Board, or LSAB, are distinguished lunar and planetary scientists from around the world. They will provide Golden Spike with scientific expertise and will recommend exploration strategies, sample collection and return requirements, and surface experiment package needs.

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Mojave Air and Space Port CEO Stu Witt (Credit: Bill Deaver)

In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Space on Wednesday, Mojave Air and Space Port CEO Stu Witt urged legislators to extend the “learning period” for new space systems to eight years, remove suborbital tourism vehicles from the ITAR list, and to make permanent the risk-sharing launch indemnification in which the government covers damages from private space missions above a certain level.

“This industry needs regulatory certainty,” Witt said in his prepared remarks. “But the learning period restriction on unsubstantiated safety regulations expires in less than two years and the risk-sharing (indemnification) regime expires at the end of next month. That regulatory uncertainty is difficult for many companies. I ask Congress to make Indemnification permanent, and also extend the Learning Period to a full eight years of R&D and operational flights to provide regulatory certainty to firms developing passenger carrying vehicles.”

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Hey everyone. We’ve got a new poll up about Inspiration Mars. We’re asking whether NASA should refocus its work on Space Launch System and Orion to support Dennis Tito’s ambitious plans to send two astronauts around the Red Planet.  NASA would need to spend about $700 million to support the mission, which would cost about $1 billion overall. Please cast your ballot today! Remember: vote early. Vote often. Just vote, […]