This week on The Space Show…. 1. Monday, May 20, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CST): We welcome KIMBERLY ARCAND & MEGAN WATZKE regarding their book, “Your Ticket To The Universe: A Guide to Exploring The Cosmos.” Find out more about this exceptional book and our authors at www.amazon.com/Your-Ticket-Universe-Exploring-Cosmos/dp/1588343758/ref=onegiantlea20. 2. Tuesday, May 21, 2013 2013, 7-8:30 PM PST (10-11:30 PM EST, 9-10:30 PM CST): OPEN LINES […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
In prepared testimony last week before the Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space, former space shuttle program manager Wayne Hale urged lawmakers to boost spending for the commercial crew program:
Poised on the cusp of these new systems, we run the risk of being penny wise and pound foolish as we make the same mistake that doomed the space shuttle to much higher cost operations: starving a spacecraft development program in the name of saving a few pennies for today’s budget bottom line resulting in the compromised systems that, if they fly at all, will not be cheap enough to enable business in space….
Currently, the commercial space effort stands uncomfortably close to the brink of financial starvation. Deep space transportation development is being stretched out by similar restrictions. Business is looking to see if the government is serious about providing the critical support or whether this effort will be wasted as so many earlier government programs which withered away on the very cusp of success: National Launch System, Orbital Space Plane, and others.
Hale’s full testimony is reproduced after the break.
Above, Eric Dahlstrom (in hat) watches two children control lunar rovers at the X Prize booth. There were many forms of getting around the Maker Faire, including this pedal powered cupcake. Run, Dr. Who! Run!
Greetings from Maker Faire Bay Area 2013, coming to you LIVE from San Mateo, Calif. It’s the biggest maker faire in the world here. Lots of cool things going on here…inventions and things you can make and remake and unmake. So much to see. It’s also sunny outside with a cool breeze and everything’s green…grass and trees and everything. I sometimes forget what that’s like. Anyway, here are a few […]
Video Caption: If you’ve ever dreamed of soaring to the stars, liftoff may be coming sooner than you think. Just ask XCOR’s Chief Test Engineer Doug Jones, who has designed a commercial suborbital spaceship that can fly up to four times a day, six days a week – sort of like an airplane. And for the low, low price of $95,000, you too can have a ticket to ride. Reason […]
The Mojave Air and Space Port will celebrate Armed Forces Day tomorrow as part of the monthly Plane Crazy Saturday event. The monthly open house, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is a free family event that will feature aircraft on display on the tarmac, airplane and space collectibles and artwork, a ceremony at noon featuring a color guard, and presentations by three military officers. A ceremony will […]
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., MAY 17, 2013 (Space Florida PR) – Space Florida, the state’s aerospace development organization and spaceport authority, today announced that The Bionetics Corporation, a diversified engineering and applied sciences company, is the newest tenant of the Space Life Sciences Laboratory (SLSL) at the Kennedy Space Center.
Bionetics, headquartered in Yorktown, Va., enhances spaceflight systems through the development of unique LED lighting and enables microgravity-based life sciences research. The newest SLSL location is the sixth of its Florida sites.
U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, and State Sen. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, have penned an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee promoting an effort to expand liability protections to spacecraft manufacturers and equipment suppliers: Last year, the California Legislature passed the Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act, and Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into law, assisting space tourism firms by providing limited indemnification. The California Senate is now considering Senate Bill 415 […]
Video Caption: Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, is the world’s leading space entrepreneur. Hear how Musk plans to send millions of people to colonize Mars, as Michelle Fields talks to the tech innovator about the future of space exploration, scientific innovation and doing business in California during a recession.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL. (May 16, 2013) – The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the nonprofit organization promoting and managing research onboard the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory, today announced an additional research grant award totaling approximately $200,000 for advancing protein crystallization in microgravity.