Interview with a Spaceflight Enthusiast
Via SXC

Marie-Francoise Le Cornec

Marie-Francoise Le Cornec
Age: 74
Occupation: Pilot
“I am a flight addict!”

1. You have recently purchased a space ticket with SXC, what did this moment mean to you?

It was a very important moment for me.

I have flown so many times in a different aircraft and I was looking for the ultimate flight experience. That’s when my chief pilot told me that I should embark on a space flight and that it was now possible. I always thought I would not be able to undertake such a journey in this lifetime, and now look at me, I will be doing it! It’s great!

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Orion crew module stressed for success

The EFT-1 The Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) Orion crew module was really put to the test throughout May as the team conducted strenuous simulations on the spacecraft to verify its structural integrity for the EFT-1 in 2014. These tests placed extreme loads on the spacecraft to verify its response to the stresses of a powerful Delta IV heavy liftoff, as well as the forceful pyrotechnics and mechanisms that will jettison hardware and release Orion’s parachutes during descent and landing.

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Upcoming SXC Events June Air Force Days in Volkel, Netherlands Friday 14th and Saturday 15th of June 2013. Our SP-1 ( 1:1 scale model of the SXC Lynx) will be present here. For more information : https://www.defensie.nl/luchtmachtdagen NASA: A Human Adventure The Exhibition in Utrecht, Netherlands 13th of June 2013 until January 2014 Our 1:6 scale model will be present here. https://www.ahumanadventure.nl/ July SXC Asia Launch Monday the 8th of […]

Walter Natynczyk

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today the following changes in the senior ranks of the Public Service:

General (Retired) Walter John Natynczyk, former Chief of the Defence Staff, becomes President of the Canadian Space Agency, effective August 6, 2013.

General (Retired) Walter John Natynczyk, C.M.M., MSC, CD

Education

Business Administration Degree, Royal Roads Military College and Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, Quebec
Graduate of the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College, Toronto
Masters of Military Science, United States Army War College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (GenCorp PR) – GenCorp Inc. (NYSE: GY) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all operations of the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne business (Rocketdyne) from United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX). GenCorp will combine Rocketdyne with Aerojet-General Corporation (Aerojet), a wholly-owned subsidiary of GenCorp, and the combined businesses will operate as Aerojet Rocketdyne, Inc., headquartered in Sacramento, California.

As part of the Rocketdyne transaction, GenCorp will acquire UTC’s 50% interest in the RD Amross joint venture following receipt of Russian regulatory approvals.

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Rockledge, Fla., June 14, 2013 (FSDC PR) — The Florida Space Development Council (FSDC), a chapter of the National Space Society, has written to the U.S. Department of State to voice opposition to proposed export-control rulemaking that would add commercial human spaceflight vehicles to a Department of Defense “munitions list” and thereby place onerous restrictions on their export from the U.S.

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Artist’s conception of the proposed SpaceX commercial launch facility near Brownsville, Texas.

Rio Grande Gaurdian reports that Texas State Sen. Eddie Lucio has placed a rider worth $15 million in the budget to help lure SpaceX to the Lone Star State:

“One of the things I am particularly proud of is the $15 million I put in the budget as a rider that will set us up for SpaceX. It was done at the very end and I worked with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams on it,” Lucio told the Guardian.

 

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Dallas, TX, June 14, 2013 (Citizens in Space PR) – Space isn’t just for governments and large corporations.

Citizen scientists and hardware hackers will learn how to do “space on the cheap” at a two-day Space Hacker Workshop in Dallas. Participants at the workshop will learn how they can build and fly experiments in space, and even fly in space as citizen astronauts, through the Citizens in Space program.

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AMSTERDAM (SXC PR) — SXC partner Luminox was ‘the talk of the town’ during Baselworld last April. The Swiss tactical watch manufacturers presented their new SXC Space range during this internationally top rated trade fair. Centerpiece of the booth was the SP-2 full scale model of the Lynx spacecraft, and the new Luminox SXC television campaign. The watches will be in stores by the end of this year, but the […]

The Orion service module fairing panels fall into the Fairing Catch Systems after being jettisoned via Separation Strut/Ordnance actuations. (Credit: NASA)

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA is carrying out a series of tests to ensure the agency’s Orion spacecraft can successfully jettison its protective fairings, or covers, during its ride to space. During the first of these tests, two of the three fairing panels separated as planned, but a third didn’t.

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