Boeing composite tank

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected six companies from five U.S. states to participate in a government-and-industry partnership to advance composite materials research and certification.

The companies are:

• Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas
• GE Aviation of Cincinnati
• Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company of Palmdale, Calif.
• Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems of Redondo Beach, Calif.
• Boeing Research & Technology of St. Louis
• United Technologies Corporation and subsidiary Pratt & Whitney of Hartford, Conn.

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Cygnus In-Orbit Update Via Orbital Sciences Corporation Monday, September 23, 2013 This morning, Orbital and NASA together decided to postpone the approach, rendezvous, grapple and berthing operations of the Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft with the International Space Station until after the upcoming Soyuz crew operations are complete. The Soyuz crew is due to arrive at the ISS very late on Wednesday, September 25. The earliest possible date for the next […]

Artist’s conception of The Boeing Company’s CST-100 spacecraft atop a an Atlas V rocket. (Credit: Boeing)

Boeing’s CST-100 program has completed 10 of its 20 milestones under its commercial crew contract with NASA. The 10 milestones are worth $339 million out of a possible award $480 million.

The two most recently completed milestones include:

• Mission Control Center interface demonstration test
• Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) engine development test

Boeing has 10 additional milestones worth $141 million to meet before this funding round ends next August.  Six of the milestones are scheduled for completion by the end of this year.

A full list of the milestones follows the break.  The other companies in the program are SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation.

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Illustration of Cygnus in orbit. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)

Cygnus Mission Update
Via NASA
September 22, 2013 – 4:17 a.m. EDT

Orbital Sciences has confirmed Sunday morning, around 1:30 a.m. EDT, its Cygnus spacecraft established direct data contact with the International Space Station (ISS) and found that some of the data received had values that it did not expect, causing Cygnus to reject the data. This mandated an interruption of the approach sequence. Orbital has subsequently found the causes of this discrepancy and is developing a software fix. The minimum turnaround time to resume the approach to the ISS following an interruption such as this is approximately 48 hours due to orbital mechanics of the approach trajectory.

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Cygnus Mission Update Via Orbital Sciences Corporation & NASA As of mid-day today, Cygnus continues to perform well in orbit, remaining on track for its rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station tomorrow morning. At noon today, the Cygnus spacecraft was approximately 400 km behind and 4 km below the ISS, closing the distance between the two at a rate of about 24 km per hour. NASA will begin […]

Might Eagle test.

Huntsville, AL (Sept. 21, 2013, NASA/Moon Express PR) – NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC) is collaborating with Moon Express, Inc. to test the company’s flight software on NASA’s “Mighty Eagle” prototype robotic lander.  The collaboration is intended to help foster the development of commercial lunar landers for future low-cost missions to the Moon.

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A new San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneurial group called Space Satellite Startups will hold an introductory meeting next Wednesday. Space Satellite Startups Wednesday, September 25, 2013 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Signup to Attend Let’s kick off our Meetup group with getting to know what is happening in the space startup business in the Bay Area. We now have confirmed speakers: The host of the evening will be provided by […]

FREE COUNTDOWN WIDGET Parabolic Arc would like to extend a warm welcome to Virgin Galactic’s future astronauts, a group of whom will visiting Mojave next Wednesday morning for what is sure to be a great show on the ground and in the skies. The weather forecast: mostly sunny with a high temperature of 76 degrees F (24.4 degrees C) and zero chance of rain. Perfect flying weather. And watching weather. […]

Cygnus Mission Update Via Orbital Sciences Corporation Our friends at AGI have developed a slick interactive 2D/3D simulation that allows you to track in real-time the location of Cygnus as it orbits the Earth during its rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station. The simulation is built on AGI’s Cesium platform, which is supported by recent versions of Chrome, Firefox and Opera. Internet Explorer is supported by using the […]