WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Part of President Obama’s FY 2014 budget request for NASA, the asteroid initiative capitalizes on activities across the agency’s human exploration, space technology and science efforts. NASA is enhancing its ongoing efforts to identify and characterize near-Earth objects for scientific investigation, and to find potentially hazardous asteroids and targets appropriate for capture.

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LONDON (DBIS PR) — A new scheme to keep the UK at the forefront of the global aerospace industry has recruited its first intake of students

• 100 students awarded bursaries for government and industry funded Aerospace Masters scheme
• Aerospace Technology Institute to be headquartered at Cranfield
• new details published on £50 million competitive fund

A new scheme to keep the UK at the forefront of the global aerospace industry has recruited its first intake of students, Business Minister Michael Fallon announced today.

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Dennis Heap has been dismissed as executive director of the Front Range Airport near Denver after 19 years in the position, the airport authority said in a terse, two-paragraph press release. The Front Range Airport Authority announced today that Ken Lawson, assistant director of aviation, will serve as interim aviation director. Dennis Heap’s last day of employment with the airport was Monday, Aug. 19, 2013. “The Front Range Airport Authority […]

Team Euroluna has asked for an extension in the deadline for signing the Google Lunar X Prize’s new Master Team Agreement 4.1 that governs how the competition is run and the responsibilities and duties of the parties involved. The team wrote on its competition webpage:

“Given the imporantace [sic] of thsi [sic] document, and the time it has taken to reach this point, a signature timing of 10 days in the middle of August seems a bit too short…

“The Euroluna Team has therefore asked for an extension until the 7th of September 2013.”

The exact deadline for signing the agreement is unknown. A video that had been posted along with the note has been removed from the site.

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Falcon 9 launch. (Credit: Chris Thompson)

Washington, D.C. (Ex-Im Bank PR) – Continuing its support of the space industry in America, the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a $105.4 million loan to Space Communication Ltd. of Ramat Gan, Israel, to finance the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) launch of the Amos-6 communications satellite, the purchase of American made-solar arrays, and insurance brokered by Marsh USA (Marsh).

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In an effort to support the development of dedicated small-satellite launch vehicles and help reduce a backlog of more than 50 CubeSats that are waiting to fly, NASA has published a solicitation for a CubeSat launch.

The program — known  as the NASA Launch Services (NLS) Enabling eXploration & Technology or NEXT — is aimed at securing a launch vehicle capable of placing three 3U sized Cubesats weighing a minimum of 15 kg  (33 lbs) to a minimum orbit of 425 km (264 miles).

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Mission Update from Orbital Sciences Corporation Following a planning and coordination meeting held yesterday, August 21, Orbital and NASA have identified September 17, 2013 as the targeted launch date for the COTS Demonstration Mission to the International Space Station. The launch of Orbital’s Antares rocket carrying the company’s Cygnus cargo logistics spacecraft will originate from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport launch pad 0A located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Orbital’s Antares […]

The fallout from last month’s spectacular Proton launch failure continued on Friday as Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced the firing of three officials at rocket builder Khrunichev: Rogozin said Friday that the deputy general director of quality control and management at Khrunichev, Alexander Kobzar, the head of final assembly, Valery Grekov, and the chief of the technical control department, Mikhail Lebedev, had been dismissed for “inappropriate fulfillment of duties […]