This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. 1. Monday, June 17, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome back KEVIN SLOA to discuss & update us on The Mars Society University Rover Challenge for this year. 2. Tuesday, June 18 2013, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): BRYCE RUSS is with us for a Yuri’s Night Wrap-up. 3. Friday, June […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
SOAR spaceplane atop an A-300. (Credit: S3)
Le Bourget, 17 June 2013. Swiss Space Systems – S3, the fledgling Swiss aerospace company, was officially launched on 13 March this year. Its goal is to develop, manufacture, certify and operate unmanned suborbital shuttles to launch small satellites up to 250 kg by 2018.
With the development phase well under way, the firm is announcing today a new partnership – with Thales Alenia Space, a leading developer and manufacturer of pressurised modules, notably for the international space station. These partnerships will enable S3 to move ahead with the plan to launch small satellites and enter the next stage of developing a manned version of its suborbital shuttle. The latter will enable the company to offer a very high speed mode of passenger transportation.
HOUSTON, Texas (NSBRI PR) — The NSBRI Industry Forum today announced a new funding opportunity for small U.S. companies with biomedical products that hold promise for use in space.
The NSBRI Industry Forum has initiated a new grant funding program for small, U.S.-based companies who are in, or have graduated from, business accelerators. NSBRI is partnering with prominent business accelerators in the biotechnology, health and health-IT sectors to identify the best and brightest candidates for the program, which seeks innovative solutions to the health care challenges inherent to spaceflight. Companies, in partnership with sponsoring accelerators, can submit applications for the SMARTCAP-Accel program from June 11, 2013 through July 22, 2013, online at www.smartcap.org.
AMSTERDAM (SXC PR) — The Universe is not the only thing that is expanding.
So is SXC! This month we will be opening two new offices in New York and Hong Kong. That way we will be able to fulfill the specific needs for our customers from Asia and the Americas.
With the expansion of our organisation, I felt SXC could really benefit from a CEO that is a star in organising and optimizing a rapidly growing corporation like ours. We are all so proud our #1 candidate Georgette Schlick accepted our offer and joined our team. Together with her we will be working towards the end of our countdown: the first rocket powered test flights before the end of the year. Glad to have you all aboard!
May the force be with you.
— Michiel Mol//CEO
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and other senior NASA officials will discuss the progress being made on NASA’s mission to capture, redirect, and explore an asteroid June 18. The event will be webcast live at: https://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-hq Officials will also outline engagement opportunities for industry, international partners and the general public at the event, which will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EDT in the James […]
CSA President Walter Natynczyk
Ottawa (Ontario), June 14, 2013 (AIAC PR) – Today Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the appointment of General (Retired) Walter Natynczyk as President of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), effective August 6, 2013.
Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) President and CEO Jim Quick issued the following statement in response to Gen. Natynczyk’s appointment:
“On behalf of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) and its member companies, I am pleased to extend my sincere congratulations to Gen. Natynczyk on his appointment as President of the Canadian Space Agency. A respected and experienced leader, Gen. Natynczyk has a long record of distinguished service in Canada’s military. AIAC is very pleased that he has been selected to lead the CSA during this critical time.
Xconomy reports that NanoRacks had a successful fund-raising round to fund an external experiments platform on the International Space Station: NanoRacks, the Houston space-science startup located a stone’s throw away from NASA, announced today it has raised $2.6 million. Emerge, a Brussels-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups in telecom and e-commerce, is the lead investor to the tune of $1.5 million in the Series A round for NanoRacks. […]
Workers moved the Orion ground test vehicle (GTA) from the Operations and Checkout Building to the Launch Equipment Test Facility on May 13. Lockheed Martin workers uncovered the GTA to prepare it for the second series of pyrotechnic bolt tests at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Credit: Jim Grossman)
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. (NASA PR) — Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians completed a series of pyrotechnic bolt tests on the Orion ground test vehicle (GTA) in the Launch Equipment Test Facility (LETF) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida May 13-17.
Earlier in the month, the GTA was transported from the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building to the LETF. During the week, technicians individually tested five frangible, or breakable, nut detonations between the GTA and a launch abort system (LAS) retention and release mechanism. Each test took about four hours to set up and about 30 minutes to test.
Mila Kunis (© Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com
Rupert “I know NOTH-THING!” Murdoch’s always entertaining and occasionally reliable British tabloid, The Sun, reports the latest celebritynaut rumor: Ashton Kutcher and main squeeze Mila Kunis will honeymoon aboard Sir Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo next year after getting married this September, probably on a beach in St Tropez.
All this according to an anonymous pal of the Hollywood power couple:
A pal of the pair said: “They decided together they want their big day in September, probably on one of St Tropez’s beaches.
“Ashton is already going into space on Branson’s Virgin Galactic flight and he has said Mila will definitely be at his side as his honeymoon present.”
The pair agreed they want to get hitched as soon as possible while sunning themselves in St Tropez with new pals Princess Beatrice and her boyfriend Dave Clark. Ashton won’t have to pull many strings to get Mila on to the space voyage.
Dave is head of “astronaut relations” for the Virgin Galactic programme — and he got friendly with Ashton when the actor snapped up the 500th ticket for the first flights.
Selected crew members for the one-year mission aboard the International Space Station, U.S. Astronaut Scott Kelly (pictured left) and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (pictured right). (Credit: NASA)
NASA PR — Scientists, engineers, educators, physicians and space explorers from around the world convened in May at Rice University in Houston at the annual International Space Medicine Summit. This summit provided an opportunity for space professionals in the international community to identify space medicine research goals and national policies that foster collaboration, communication and cooperation between spacefaring nations. This year’s summit occurred at an ideal time, as the International Space Station partnership moves forward with its plan to put an American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut in space for an entire year.
Between 1987 and 1995, four Russian cosmonauts spent a year or more consecutively in space. Now, for the first time, an American astronaut, Scott Kelly, will be joining that exclusive club, as he and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko inhabit the space station for an entire year beginning in 2015. These two explorers will live on the space station for twice as long as a typical space station crew member. Researchers expect the one-year mission to yield beneficial knowledge on the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges explorers may face as they venture to an asteroid, Mars and beyond. This mission will also provide an additional opportunity for cooperation between research teams around the world.