ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 13, 2013 (ATK PR) — ATK (NYSE: ATK) has received a contract from Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB) to provide first and second stage propulsion for the Air Launch Vehicle (ALV) that Orbital is designing and building for Stratolaunch Systems Corporation as part of a revolutionary air-launched space transportation system. The contract from Orbital includes the design, development and flight hardware for initial Stratolaunch missions.
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
A Xombie technology demonstrator from Masten Space Systems, Mojave, Calif., ascends from its pad at Mojave Air and Space Port on a test for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The vehicle is a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing experimental rocket. It is being used in collaboration with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center to evaluate performance of JPL’s Fuel Optimal Large Divert Guidance (G-FOLD), a new algorithm for planetary pinpoint landing of spacecraft. Image (Credit: NASA/Masten)
MOJAVE, Calif. (NASA PR) — A year after NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity’s landed on Mars, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are testing a sophisticated flight-control algorithm that could allow for even more precise, pinpoint landings of future Martian spacecraft.
Flight testing of the new Fuel Optimal Large Divert Guidance algorithm – G-FOLD for short – for planetary pinpoint landing is being conducted jointly by JPL engineers in cooperation with Masten Space Systems in Mojave, Calif., using Masten’s XA-0.1B “Xombie” vertical-launch, vertical-landing experimental rocket.
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Matt Jackson
MOJAVE (MTM PR) — Veteran air race pilot and aircraft restoration expert Matt Jackson has joined the Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation as Director of Aircraft Maintenance and member of the board of directors.
MTM Treasurer Cathy Hansen, who invited Jackson to join the group, said “We are thrilled to have someone of Matt’s caliber working with us to help educate the public about aviation.”
Jackson, based in Van Nuys, has flown more Unlimited class race planes than any other pilot in the history of the Reno air races.
This year he will be in the cockpit of Strega, a modified P-51 which has won more races in its class than any other contender, an interesting match-up of pilot and plane that promises a great race in the new Unlimited and Warbird Class (UWRC) at Reno.
It looks like space memorial service Celestis is getting some competition. A new memorial service called Elysium Space is offering to send the ashes of your loved ones into orbit for $1,990 — less than half the $4,995 that Celestis is charging for a similar service. Elysium’s website says that the first memorial flight is set to take off next summer as a secondary payload to a much larger spacecraft. […]
If at first you don’t succeed, spend three years re-engineering and re-testing anything and everything and then try, try again.
That’s the story of ISRO’s experience with developing a cryogenic upper stage, an advanced technology mastered by only a handful of the world’s space powers. On August 19, the Indian space agency will launch its second domestically produced cryogenic stage, capping off a three-year effort to recover for its first failed attempt.
On April 15, 2010, the first and second stages of the GSLV rocket fired nominally. However, the cryogenic upper stage engine fired for only .5 seconds before the fuel pump failed. The premature cutoff sent the GSAT-4 spacecraft to a watery grave at the bottom of the Bay of Bengal.
WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo Flight Test Summaries Via Scaled Composites Flight: WK2 131/SS2 GF26 Date: 08 Aug 13 SS2 Flight Time: 10 min SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Mackay WK2 Flight Time: 1.6 hr WK2 Pilot: Sturckow WK2 CoPilot: Alsbury WK2 FTE: Lassen GS Crew: Bourgeois, Glaser, Knupp, Bassett, Jaster, Corda, Kalogiannis, Verderame, Prior, Cassebeer, Baker, Gould, Colby, Kroese, Flynn, Tighe, Siebold SS2 Objectives: Pilot aircraft evaluation Feather flight Results: Objectives achieved WK2 […]
Artist’s conception of Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Cygnus freighter approaching the International Space Station.
Dulles, VA, 08 August 2013 (Orbital PR) – Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today announced it has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to host a scientific payload that will improve spacecraft fire safety for future space exploration vehicles. Known as the Spacecraft Fire Experiment (Saffire), the payload will be hosted aboard Orbital’s Cygnus™ advanced maneuvering spacecraft and is planned for flight by mid-2015.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 13 university teams for collaborative projects to develop and demonstrate new technologies and capabilities and spur innovation in communication, navigation, propulsion, science instruments, and advanced manufacturing for small spacecraft.Selected project teams will work with engineers and scientists from six NASA centers. The goal of these efforts is to transform small spacecraft, some of which weigh only a few kilograms, into powerful but affordable tools for science, exploration and space operations.
This week on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston: 1. Monday, August 12, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome RICK BOOZER, astrophysics researcher, public speaker and author, to the program to discuss his new book, “The Plundering of NASA: an Expose. How pork barrel politics harm American spaceflight leadership.” His website is at https://astromaven.blogspot.com. 2. Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 […]
Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly (left), is reunited with twin brother, Mark Kelly on March 17, 2011, following a flight to Ellington Field in Houston from Kustanay, Kazakhstan after 159 days in space, 157 days on the International Space Station. (Credit:
NASA)
By Laura Niles
International Space Station Program Science Office
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
“Twin minds think alike” is not a common phrase in the public dialogue, but in the case of twin astronauts, it may someday become one. In a spark of astronaut, and possibly familial, curiosity, twin NASA astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly initiated an unprecedented research request to study the human effects of spaceflight using their identical twin genetic makeup. NASA’s Human Research Program (HRP) realized that another opportunity to study astronaut twins would be rare, and took the brothers up on their offer of genetic comparison in the name of human space exploration.