Amazon.com Founder Jeff Bezos is expressing optimism over the progress of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle, but he’s not saying when he expects his company to fly it. “The project is going extremely well,” Bezos said of Blue Origin. “It’s a killer team of passionate, highly-technical people working on this.” Blue Origin is now working on its third version of the New Shepard, which is designed to take everyday […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Toronto, Ontario, October 13, 2013 (PlayLab PR) — Working in partnership with the X Prize Foundation and Galactic Unite (the not-for-profit initiative of Virgin Galactic, its Future Astronaut customers and Virgin Unite), PlayLab today announced a series rocket-building workshops for children grade 4-7, designed to inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts and innovators.
MIAMI (IFG PR) — InterFlight Global (IFG) has partnered with Starfighters Aerospace at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to lead, design, develop and conduct a Space Tourism Point-to-Point Pathfinder set of flight missions using Starfighters’ supersonic F-104 jet aircraft. IFG intends to promote, develop, enhance and position Florida as the world’s leading Space Tourism hub.
Government Shutdown Rippling
Across Aerospace and Defense Industry
Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Marion C. Blakey calls on Congress and President Obama to pass a bipartisan solution that reopens the government as soon as possible.
The Aerospace Industries Association calls on Congress and President Obama to work together to pass a bipartisan solution that reopens the government as soon as possible. The negative impacts of the shutdown range from industry worker furloughs on programs that support the war fighter to delays in new aircraft certification and space systems launches.
It looks like SpaceShipTwo is gearing up to test its feather re-entry system at supersonic speeds for the first time. During a powered flight last month, they tested it at subsonic speeds. Aviation Week reports: Following two supersonic flights through the heart of the potential flutter zone, Scaled Composites’ test pilots, evaluating Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2), report the vehicle is rugged and stable, without any of the transonic issues that […]
Video Caption: On Monday, October 7th, Grasshopper completed its highest leap to date, rising to 744m altitude. The view above is taken from a single camera hexacopter, getting closer to the stage than in any previous flight. Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to Earth intact. While most rockets are designed to burn up on atmosphere […]
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
It’s a pretty good bet that first-year Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) isn’t real popular these days down in Houston.
The conservative firebrand and Tea Party supporter led the effort to shut down the government. In the process, he has left Houston, which is heavily dependent on government funding through the NASA Johnson Space Flight Center (JSC), in the lurch for almost two weeks now.
Although many anti-government libertarians and arch conservatives are shedding no tears over Federal employees being idled, the impact of the shutdown is being felt much more broadly. The Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership laid out the impacts on the private sector in a white paper earlier this week.
Before the shutdown, JSC had approximately 3,200 federal employees and 11,000 private sector employees supporting its human spaceflight and exploration mission. As a result of the shutdown, JSC is closed, except for 100 federal and a very limited number of contractor employees who support the International Space Station’s operations, which have been deemed critical, or in fed-speak ‘excepted services.’
Updated Cygnus Reentry Timeline Via Orbital Sciences Corporation October 11, 2013 Orbital’s Cygnus team has updated its thruster burn schedule for the spacecraft’s controlled reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Following its unberthing and departure from the ISS on October 22 at approximately 6:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. respectively, Cygnus is now expected to reenter the atmosphere on October 23rd at approximately 2:18 p.m. (eastern) over the Pacific Ocean east of New […]
Phoenix satellite concept. (Credit: DARPA)
DARPA has awarded a contract worth up to $42.6 million to NovaWurks of Los Alamitos, Calif., for work on the Phoenix project, an ambitious effort to recycle parts from dead satellites now in orbit.
The company’s Phoenix Phase 2 contract has a base value of $30.7 million and four options that if exercised would raise the total to $42.6 million, according to the contract award document. Last year, Novawurks received a $2.8 million Phase 1 contract.
Falcon 9 lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX’s efforts to get its Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle certified to carry U.S. military payloads is being delayed due to the government shutdown, Aviation Week reports.
The Aerospace Corporation, which handles much of the technical analysis for the U.S. Air Force that is required for the certification, has furloughed 2,000 of their 3,500 employees due to the budget impasse. The company is analyzing data from the Sept. 29 launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.