On 22 October 2013, NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD), on board the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft, made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 400 000 km between Earth and the Moon at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps). (Credit: NASA)

PARIS (ESA PR) — ESA’s ground station on the island of Tenerife has received laser signals over a distance of 400,000 km from NASA’s latest Moon orbiter. The data were delivered many times faster than possible with traditional radio waves, marking a significant breakthrough in space communications.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, was launched on 7 September and arrived in orbit around the Moon in October. In addition to probing the Moon’s environment, it’s also carrying a new laser terminal.

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ORLANDO FLA (ESF PR) — Earthrise Space Foundation (ESF) President and CEO, Ruben Nunez is this year Rising Star in Technology Award Winner at the Florida TechXpo!  The Rising Star Award is presented to a new company or one that has made the most significant progress in the past 18 months. This company’s growth puts it on track to make a positive impact in their markets and on the region’s technology community.

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American Data Plates gift shop in Lancaster, Calif. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

California’s Antelope Valley is probably the home of more aviation and space firsts than any place else in the world. Within this massive stretch of desert, the sound barrier was broken, space shuttles were built and tested, Voyager took off and landed for its solo around the world trip, and the first privately-funded manned space vehicle soared above the Karman line.

Monuments and tributes to this glorious past and high-tech present can be found scattered all over the valley from suburban Palmdale in the south to the dusty desert outside Randsburg up north. The Antelope Valley’s blue skies are filled with advanced supersonic jets that boom and zoom across the horizon just like Chuck Yeager first did nearly 70 years ago.

I found a very cool place in Lancaster the other day that encompasses the Antelope Valley’s past and present. American Data Plates, which makes products for aircraft and space vehicles, has a gift shop with interesting aviation and space memorabilia and collectibles.

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NASA Kennedy Space Center has released a draft RFP for the next phase of the Commercial Crew Program. The agency expects to release a final RFP on or about November 19, 2013, with proposals due on or about January 22, 2014. A pre-proposal conference is set for on or about December 4, 2013.

Synopsis

NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) plans to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to compete requirements for Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) Phase 2 of the Commercial Crew Program. The CCtCap contract is the second phase of a two-phased procurement strategy to develop a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability to achieve safe, reliable and cost effective access to and from the International Space Station (ISS) with a goal of no later than 2017.

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NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins performs ultrasound eye imaging in the Columbus laboratory of the International Space Station. European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano assists Hopkins. (Credit: NASA)

ISS Science Highlights: Week of Oct. 21, 2013
John Love, Lead Increment Scientist
Expedition 37/38

Aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition 37 crew inserted plant samples into the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for the Resist Tubule study. This investigation uses the microgravity environment to examine the modifications in cellular components that are responsible for gravity resistance in plants. This knowledge will enable efficient plant production both in space and on Earth.

NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins performed an Ocular Health session, which included fundoscopy, tonometry, vision testing, ocular ultrasound and vascular compliance. The purpose of this investigation is to collect evidence to characterize the risk and define the visual changes and central nervous system changes observed during a six-month exposure to space. The study will gather information to assess the risk of Microgravity-Induced Visual Impairment/Intracranial Pressure (VIIP) and guide future research needs. Monitoring in-flight visual changes, in addition to post-flight recovery, is the main focus of this study.

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The Old West met the new earlier this week as the Mojave Air and Space Port played host to a team of 100 mules and their wranglers. The mule team is being taken through the Antelope Valley to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Aquaduct. The group stopped for a rest at the spaceport in midweek, and there was a viewing period for the public on Thursday. Mules […]

Artist’s conception of SR-72. (Credit: Lockheed Martin)

Aviation Week has quite the scoop on Lockheed Martin’s plans for a successor to the legendary SR-71:

After years of silence on the subject, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has revealed exclusively to AW&ST details of long-running plans for what it describes as an affordable hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike platform that could enter development in demonstrator form as soon as 2018. Dubbed the SR-72, the twin-engine aircraft is designed for a Mach 6 cruise, around twice the speed of its forebear, and will have the optional capability to strike targets.

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Space News reports that Space Florida is making a big investment in NanoRacks: Space Florida, a state-backed economic development agency, will invest up to $500,000 in NanoRacks LLC, an in-space commercial services provider that next month will fly its first cubesat launcher to the international space station. The $500,000 represents the final piece of a $3.1 million round of Series A investment in XO Markets, the holding company for Houston-based […]

Europe’s ATV cargo ship. (Credit: NASA)

For more than 50 years now, the space program has been all about the astronauts. Or, as Jan Brady might say, “It’s always astros astros astros!” Returning space adventurers  have gotten it all: the ticker tape parades, the medals of freedom, the hottest groupies. What a life.

By contrast, cargo ships don’t get squat. Few people notice them when they are launched, and even fewer pay any note when most of them are filled with trash and cast off to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Thanks for the food, water and underwear. Now, go burn yourself up. Where’s the glory in that?

Joey Vars, an intern this Fall at NASA, has written a brief history that casts a bit of well deserved light on these under appreciated vessels. The article is followed by a table comparing all the cargo vehicles now serving the International Space Station.

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Nyack, NY (SFF PR) — The Space Frontier Foundation is proud to announce its sponsorship of the SpaceVision 2013 conference and their Student Business Plan Competition (BPC).

SpaceVision is run by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), making the sponsorship a direct investment in the future of NewSpace. The Foundation strongly encourages anyone interested in NewSpace to attend the conference, and see what the next generation of great NewSpace innovators and businessmen are up to.

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