NEW YORK, NY, November 8, 2013 (NBCUniversal PR) — Announced this morning on NBC’s TODAY, NBCUniversal inked an exclusive multi-platform partnership with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, to televise the inaugural commercial space flight of SpaceShipTwo.

Next year, Sir Richard and his adult children, Holly and Sam, will be the first private passengers to travel into space on SpaceShipTwo from Virgin Galactic’s terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico. NBC News’ award-winning Peacock Productions will chronicle the journey across a myriad of NBCUniversal brands and platforms including CNBC,MSNBC, NBCNews.com, Syfy, The Weather Channel and more, culminating in a primetime special airing on NBC the night before launch, and a three-hour live event on “TODAY,” hosted by Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie.

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BOULDER, Colo. (SwRI PR) — NASA has selected a team led by Southwest Research Institute to be a founding member of the agency’s new Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI).

The recently formed team, known as the Institute for the Science of Exploration Targets, or ISET, will help build fundamental knowledge of the worlds directly accessible by astronauts in the future — such as the Moon, near-Earth asteroids and the satellites of Mars — by researching their origin, evolution and physical properties, as well as what their relatively pristine records tell us about the history of the Solar System.

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Arkyd 100 spacecraft. (Credit: Planetary Resources)

Arkyd Astronautics, a company owned by Planetary Resources, has been selected by DARPA for  2013 SBIR Phase I award for a project to incorporate hypervisor-based software virtualization into spacecraft architectures. I know that’s a mouthful; the benefits of it are described in the company’s abstract below.

Arkyd was one of four companies working on hypervisor technology that DARPA selected for Phase I awards. The other companies were: DornerWorks, Ltd., of  Grand Rapids, MI; Emergent Space Technologies, Inc., of Greenbelt, MD; and Intelligent Automation, Inc., of Rockville, MD.  All the abstracts are below.

DARPA 2013 SBIR Phase I Awards
Hypervisor Software Virtualization

Arkyd Astronautics, Inc.
Bellevue, WA
PI:  Ray Ramadorai
Title: Spacecraft Hypervisor Implementing Modularity and Security (SHIMS)

Abstract: Incorporating hypervisor-based software virtualization into spacecraft architectures offers the capability to integrate payload software in a plug-and-play fashion, enabling more flexible and reconfigurable platforms. The hypervisor allows the payload software to be implemented in an abstracted, virtualized environment, which isolates the payload software from core spacecraft functions and offers significant advantages for payload development efficiency, modularity, re-use, integration, and test. (more…)

Newt Gingrich is out promoting his 27th book, talking up his desire to go to space. We’ve got a new poll about the nature of his planned voyage to space. Please vote in it. Gingrich also bemoaned that his pledge to establish a moon colony was widely ridiculed during his latest failed attempt to win the Presidency. I  sympathized the the former House Speaker when his vision was mocked.  I […]

Phoenix satellite concept. (Credit: DARPA)

Palo Alto, CA (SS/L PR) – Space Systems/Loral (SSL), a leading provider commercial satellites today announced that it has been selected to develop designs, processes and business terms for carrying small science and technology missions to space on its geostationary (GEO) satellite platform.

Under phase two of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Phoenix program, SSL intends to detail the design and implementation processes for affordable delivery of small spacecraft beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The goal of the revolutionary Phoenix program is to enable cost-effective repurposing of serviceable space hardware that is already on orbit. The capability that SSL is developing for Phoenix is also expected to enable other future operational, science and technology space missions.

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The University of Cincinnati today announced the vision for a Neil Armstrong Space Science Institute and an important  research partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center while also honoring the life of Neil Armstrong, who taught at UC from 1971 to 1979. Armstrong died in August 2012.

In honor of Armstrong, UC:

• Opened an on-campus exhibit
• Unveiled a bas-relief honoring Armstrong for Rhodes Hall
• Launched the vision for the Neil Armstrong Space Science Institute
• Signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA’s Ames Research Center
• Revealed a commemorative website celebrating Armstrong’s career
• Started a new award and scholarship in his honor

“Although Neil Armstrong was a private and unassuming hero who preferred not to be in the spotlight, the University of Cincinnati community wanted to do something to honor his memory and his achievements,” said UC President Santa Ono. “We wanted to do it in a way that takes into account how we at the University of Cincinnati knew him best — as a teacher and an engineer, as a pilot and astronaut.

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In this episode: Moon Express’ Bob Richards.

Zero G Colony Galactic Music Experience What: Massive, multi-day music and tech festival When: Early 2015 Location: Suburbs of Nowhere, New Mexico (aka, Spaceport America) Existing Support Facilities: Minimal Access Routes: Even less so Hype: Out of this world If you love Burning Man (and hey, who doesn’t) and thought Woodstock was “out of sight man, really far out” (there’s a few of those cool cats still around), then the […]

ORLANDO, Fla. (UCF PR) — UCF will be home to NASA’s Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (referred to as CLASS) beginning later this year, thanks to a $6 million grant awarded this week to UCF physics professor Daniel Britt.

The research center puts UCF on the agency’s space-exploration map. CLASS will provide critical research in areas NASA has identified as key to future robotic and human space-exploration missions. The CLASS was one of nine organizations selected under NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute program, which NASA announced Wednesday.

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Tethers Unlimited’s SWIFT TacSATCOM radio system enables tiny CubeSats to communicate directly with standard handheld UHF radios used by soldiers in the field (Credit: TUI)

BOTHELL, WA, 7 November 2013 (TUI PR) – The Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) has awarded Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to complete development of a communications system that will enable CubeSats to communicate directly with handheld radios used by Army troops.

TUI’s  “SWIFT TacSATCOM” system combines a frequency agile software defined radio with novel deployable antennas to enable these tiny, low power, low cost spacecraft to support soldiers in the field by providing real time access to mission critical data and communications.

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