Video Caption: NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had the opportunity to fly a simulated landing of the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Dream Chaser while touring the agency’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California on May 22. SNC’s Dream Chaser flight test vehicle arrived at Dryden on May 15 in preparation for tow, captive-carry and free-flight tests later this year. The testing is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) initiatives to […]

CCP Spotlight on Development Via NASA Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is working toward completing its seventh milestone for NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). This upcoming milestone will outline the company’s plans for safely flying its crewed Dragon spacecraft in low-Earth orbit, how it could rendezvous and dock with the International Space Station or other orbiting spacecraft, and then re-enter […]

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed a new law that will allow officials to temporarily close Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville for launches of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets. The California-based company is considering constructing a seaside commercial launch complex near the Mexican border. SpaceX also is looking at locations in Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico. The Texas site is currently considered to be the frontrunner in the competition, with the Federal […]

We (still) don’t have no stinkin’ badges!

Greetings from La Jolla!

The International Space Development Conference is now at the lunch break of Day 2. Most people are currently at the overpriced luncheon waiting for author/scientific thinker/former Prince & Bruce Springsteen publicist Howard Bloom to speak. I skipped the lunch and had a turkey sandwich I made at my sister’s house.

If the short preview Bloom gave earlier today is any indication, they’re in for quite a treat. Bloom spoke about a baby burned over 95 percent of its body American napalm. Or Vietnamese napalm. Or maybe it was Chinese or Russian napalm. Nobody really knew whose napalm it was, or whether it was napalm at all. Which made the entire tangent rather mysterious.

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Vasily Klyukin, a 37-year-old Russian real estate mogul who lives in Monaco, will spend $1.5 million to take a flight into space alongside “Titanic” star Leonardo DiCaprio aboard Sir Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo. “I want to be a bit daring,” Klyukin told Reuters. “I will have to give up smoking now for sure!” Klyukin won the trip at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS charity dinner during the Cannes Film Festival. Two […]

Washington, D.C., May 23, 2013 (SAI PR) — The Satellite Industry Association (SIA) applauded the publication today of draft rules to reform the export controls for satellites and related items. The Departments of State and Commerce published draft regulations that would result in the transfer of commercial communications satellites and associated parts, components, and ground equipment from the more restrictive U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List. The publication of these draft rules represents the first step by the Administration toward fully implementing the provisions to reform satellite export controls contained in the FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act that was passed by Congress in December 2012 and signed by President Obama in January 2013.

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WHAT: Planetary Resources’ team of engineers who have designed, built and operated spacecraft throughout the Solar System, including all of the recent U.S. Mars landers and rovers, are now developing the most advanced space technology ever and will make it publicly accessible. A diverse group of supporters, including Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson, actor Seth Green, Star Trek’s Brent Spiner (Data) and Rob Picardo (The Doctor), Bill Nye the Science Guy, futurist Jason Silva, and MIT astrophysicist Dr. Sara Seager, […]

A newly illustrated version of the National Space Society publication Milestones to Space Settlement: An NSS Roadmap is now available in three new formats from nss.org/roadmap: (1) A free downloadable PDF edition [6 MB]; (2) a free online full-screen flip-book edition; and (3) a quality full-color magazine-style printed edition for $9.95 (think Father’s Day?). These new editions provide additional ways to read and distribute this material to help promote the […]

KIRUNA, Sweden (Spaceport Sweden PR) — Bookings are now open for January 30th, 2014 with airZeroG. The availability is extremely limited, so book your ticket today via Spaceport Sweden – and get ready for space! Spaceport Sweden is a proud reseller of the sensational flights of airZeroG. This is not only the single opportunity to fly in Europe, it is also the largest aircraft in the world license to perform […]

The intermittently reliable New York Post has this space tourism item out of France: One lucky Cannes Film Festival-goer will get to go into outer space with Leonardo DiCaprio. Page Six has exclusively learned one of the auction prizes at tonight’s amfAR gala at Cannes will be a trip on Virgin Galactic’s space flight with “The Great Gatsby” star. Seats on the world’s first commercial space flight cost $200,000, but […]