This miniature model represents the type of vehicle UTEP will help build in partnership with Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology to take customers into space. (Credit: Kyutech)

EL PASO, Tex. (UTEP PR) — The University of Texas at El Paso signed a cooperative and international affiliation agreement with Japan’s Kyushu Institute of Technology (Kyutech) on Monday, July 29 to form a new academic and research partnership. The partnership allows for faculty and student exchange, as well as collaborative research on advancing aerospace technologies.

KyuTech has been historically funded by JAXA, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and plans to collaborate with the NASA University Research Center (URC), and Center for Space Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) at UTEP.

“This is more than just a signing ceremony,” said Ahsan Choudhuri, Ph.D., chair and professor of mechanical engineering. “This is a long-term strategy to build this region into a commercial aerospace hub.”

He added, “There is already an interest to utilize this region for aerospace purposes, so we are going to capitalize on this dawn of commercial space exploration by placing ourselves as the strategic lead of capabilities in the area.”

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has completed the first step toward a mission to find and capture a near-Earth asteroid, redirect it to a stable lunar orbit and send humans to study it.

In preparation for fiscal year 2014, a mission formulation review on Tuesday brought together NASA leaders from across the country to examine internal studies proposing multiple concepts and alternatives for each phase of the asteroid mission. The review assessed technical and programmatic aspects of the mission.

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Oxford Harwell, United Kingdom,  30 July 2013 (SAN PR) — Space Angels Network, LLC, an international network of seed‐ and early‐stage investors focused on aerospace‐related ventures, and the Satellite Applications Catapult, an organization supported by the UK government to help space-related businesses commercialize innovative ideas, today announced the beginning of a collaborative partnership. Through this partnership both organizations will work together to promote the continued development of a healthy start-up and investment ecosystem for commercial space entrepreneurs and investors in the UK.

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Video Caption: Moon Express Inc. is a privately held early stage company that plans to offer commercial transportation and data services to and from the Moon.

WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo Flight Test Summaries Via Scaled Composites Flights: WK2 130/SS2 GF25 Date: 25 July 13 SS2 Flight Time: 11 min, 52 sec SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Mackay WK2 Flight Time: 1.5 hr WK2 Pilot: Masucci WK2 CoPilot: Kalogiannis  WK2 FTE: Flynn GS Crew: Bourgeois, Glaser, Knupp, Bassett, Jaster, Bozarth, Verderame, Prior, Cassebeer, Story, Baker, Gould, Colby, Withrow, Tighe, Siebold SS2 Objectives: VG pilot training SS2 Results: Objective achieved. WK2 […]

Bruce Jackson, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Langley Flight Research Center, briefs astronauts Rex Walheim, left, and Gregory Johnson as they evaluate Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser landing simulation in the Cockpit Motion Facility. (Credit: NASA/David C. Bowman)

Richmond, BC – MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. , a global communications and information company, announced today that it has signed a US$1.7 million contract with Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) to develop an engineering concept solution to provide on-board communication signal processing capabilities for its Dream Chaser® crew transportation vehicle.

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Hawthorne, CA (SpaceX PR) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) was awarded a launch reservation contract with MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) to support the largest space program to date in Canada, carrying the three satellites to orbit that will make up the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2018.

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Plane Crazy Saturday will continue for at least the next year at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The open house, which takes place on the third Saturday of every month, was in limbo recently due to a dispute over a $100 per event fee the airport levied to pay for security. The Mojave Transportation Museum, which sponsors the open house, had balked at paying it. John Joyce, the publisher […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — A complicated, high-altitude test last Wednesday demonstrated NASA’s new Orion spacecraft could land safely even if one of its parachutes failed.

The 10th in a series of evaluations to check out the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle’s parachute system dropped the test capsule from a C-17 aircraft at its highest altitude yet, 35,000 feet above the Arizona desert. One of three massive main parachutes was cut away early on purpose, leaving the spacecraft to land with only two. The test at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground was the highest-altitude test of a human spacecraft parachute since NASA’s Apollo Program.

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Skycorp has signed a letter of intent with an undisclosed satellite operator for on-orbit servicing designed to extend the life of spacecraft , CEO Dennis Wingo announced at the NewSpace 2013 conference last week.

Wingo also announced the Skycorp Spacecraft Life Extension System (SLES), a servicing spacecraft designed to extend the life of a geosynchronous satellite by 10 years for one-third the cost of building and launching a replacement.