Tim Allen (Credit: MingleMediaTVNetwork)

LOS ANGELES, CA, October 21, 2013 (XPRIZE PR) – Award-winning actor Tim Allen is teaming up with XPRIZE to narrate Back To The Moon For Good, an exciting, educational fulldome show debuting this November at more than 80 planetariums around the world. The 25-minute digital film highlights the history of exploring the moon and provides an insider’s look at the teams vying for the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE, the largest incentivized prize in history.

Back To The Moon For Good begins with a tour through the history of lunar exploration, tracing back to the 1960s and 1970s. Hear from some of the teams racing to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon and vying to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE. The audience is taken on a successful launch, landing and tour of the lunar surface. The show ends with an enticing visualization of a future settlement on the moon.

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The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has released a draft of its safety practices for human spaceflight. The 49-page document, “Established Practices for Human Space Flight Occupant Safety,” can be accessed here. The document was just released today, so I haven’t had time to peruse it yet. I’ll look at it more closely tonight and try to do a summary for Wednesday. In the meantime, have a look at […]

NASA’s LADEE spacecraft approaching lunar orbit. (Credit: NASA)

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) has made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239,000 miles between the moon and Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps).

LLCD is NASA’s first system for two-way communication using a laser instead of radio waves. It also has demonstrated an error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps transmitted from the primary ground station in New Mexico to the spacecraft currently orbiting the moon.

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High Bay of KSC facility used to manufacture Boeing CST-100 spacecraft. (Credit: Boeing)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct. 22, 2013 (Boeing PR) – Boeing has finalized an agreement with Space Florida to use a processing facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to build the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 spacecraft, an important step toward restoring the United States’ ability to launch humans into space.

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Oleg_Ostapenko (Credit: www.kremlin.ru)

It looks as though the restructuring of the Russian space sector is less comprehensive than it had earlier seemed. It appears that the major companies, such as Energia, TsSKB Progress and Khrunichev, will not be affected by the consolidation.

The move, which primarily will affect subcontractors and component suppliers, comes in the wake of reliability issues with Russia’s workhorse Proton rocket, which failed spectacularly in a July 1 mission. But the connection between the two is not clear.

The appointment of a new leader at the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, along with an updated definition of the agency’s role, was an initial step in the restructuring. In appointing Oleg Ostapenko, a former commander of the Russian Space Forces, as the new director-general of Roscosmos Oct. 10, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev discussed some of the forthcoming changes….

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World View balloon and capsule at altitude. (Credit: World View)

TUCSON, Ariz. (World View PR) — Majestic views of our planet slowly expand below. The curved horizon hangs under the blackness of space. The comfort and gentle glide of the vessel spoils passengers as they sail for hours along the edge of space, and delight in a view that few people have had the honor of surveying…until now.

World View® is pleased to announce plans for a spectacular human flight into nearspace, unlike any other suborbital spaceflight experience being offered today, allowing passengers to remain aloft for hours at a comparably affordable price.

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Cygnus is released from the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — A cargo resupply demonstration mission by Orbital Sciences Corp. drew to a close Tuesday as Expedition 37 crew members aboard the International Space Station detached and released the Dulles, Va., company’s Cygnus spacecraft from the orbiting laboratory.

Cygnus had been attached to the space station’s Harmony module for 23 days. The spacecraft delivered about 1,300 pounds (589 kilograms) of cargo, including food, clothing and student experiments. Future Cygnus flights will ensure a robust national capability to deliver critical science research to orbit, significantly increasing NASA’s ability to conduct new science investigations to the only laboratory in microgravity.

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NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg works on the Advanced Colloids Experiment-1 at the Light Microscopy Module in the Fluids Integrated Rack / Fluids Combustion Facility during Expedition 36 aboard the International Space Station.(Credit: NASA)

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Extending the shelf life of everyday items such as shampoo, laundry detergent and toothpaste is a complex process, and one with potentially significant impacts to commercial products and to the family pocketbook. Using microgravity to study the exceptionally small particles, known as colloids, which make up these types of liquid products, researchers can gain more insight into the characteristics of these particles. This may ultimately aid research efforts in improving health, beauty and household care products.

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Cygnus berthed at ISS. (Credit: NASA)

WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) — NASA Television will provide live coverage of the departure of the newest U.S. commercial cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to the International Space Station and undocking of the fourth European Space Agency cargo vehicle.

Coverage for departure of the Cygnus spacecraft begins at 7 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Oct. 22. The spacecraft has been attached to the space station since Sept. 29 on a demonstration cargo resupply mission by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.

Coverage for departure of the fourth European Space Agency (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4) cargo spacecraft begins at 4:45 a.m.  Monday, Oct. 28.

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A false color infrared image of the Antares launch. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Buoyed by two trouble-free launches, Orbital Sciences Corporation is looking to market its new Antares launch vehicle beyond NASA’s commercial cargo program, Spaceflight Now reports.

“With two really good launches under our belt, things are picking up in terms of customer interest,” said David Thompson, Orbital’s chairman and CEO, in a conference call with investment analysts.

“The five-month interval between its first launch in April and its second launch in September gives us confidence both that the overall vehicle design is solid and that we are in a good position to carry out three more Antares launches during the next 12 months,” Thompson said Oct. 17.

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