An artist concept of Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft atop its integrated launch vehicle, United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket. (Credit: Boeing)

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — The Boeing Company of Houston, a NASA Commercial Crew Program (CCP) partner, has successfully completed a preliminary design review (PDR) of the component that would connect the company’s new crew capsule to its rocket.

The review is one of six performance milestones Boeing has completed for NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to make available commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers. The company is on track to complete all 19 of its milestones during CCiCap.

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AMSTERDAM (SXC PR) — Haven’t we all ever dreamed of being able to fly weightlessly and freely through the air one day?

As of the 15th of March 2013, this incomparable sensation is not something only possible in childhood comic book or science fiction heroes, but to everyone.

Thanks to the close collaboration with Spaceport Sweden and with the presence of a host of honor – Mr. Jean-François Clervoy, Chairman of Novespace and ESA astronaut – our own heroes — Ms. Aysal, Mr. Gal and Mr. Shapiro — were among the first private passengers to go through this life-changing experience.

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SMALLSAT TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS 2013 NASA COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT NOTICE Full Solicitation Summary Objective: To award cooperative agreements to United States colleges and universities to develop and/or demonstrate new technologies and capabilities for small spacecraft in collaboration with NASA. Projects may be technology development or development of spacecraft or payloads for suborbital, balloon or orbital space flights. Eligibility: Limited to college and university teams (including undergraduate and/or graduate students) in partnership with […]

Credit: Final Frontier Design

BROOKLYN, NY (FFD PR) — Final Frontier Design (FFD) is pleased to announce that NASA has selected their company for contract negotiations for 2 separate Phase I Small Business Innovative [sic] Research (SBIR) awards, for total potential contracts of $250,000 in 2013. FFD is a small business based in Brooklyn, NY, developing space safety garments for the commercial space industry.

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Mojave businesses are now eligible for grants worth up to $10,000 to upgrade their building facades under a new Kern County program aimed at helping to revitalize the community.

The program will be unveiled at a business mixer next Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m. in the Mariah Country Inn on Business Route 58. The mixer, which is being sponsored by the Mojave Chamber of Commerce, will include light refreshments and drinks.

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MOJAVE, Calif. (Virgin Galactic PR) — SpaceShipTwo took to the skies again yesterday on a beautiful calm Mojave morning for an important test flight. This was her 24th glide flight and the 6th in-flight test of her patented feathered re-entry system. The flight test team also successfully verified SS2’s nitrous loading and venting system, another key milestone on the way to our first powered flight. Galactic’s Chief Pilot David Mackay […]

WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo Test Flight Summary Via Scaled Composites Flights 113/GF24 Date 03 Apr 13 SS2 Flight Time: 9 minutes WK2 Flight Time: 1.7 hours SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Nichols   WK2 Pilot: Mackay WK2 CoPilot: Alsbury WK2 FTE: Dugué GS Crew Tighe, Bourgeois, Glaser, Knupp, Bassett, Jaster, Bozarth, Verderame, Keller, Cassebeer, Zeeb, Gould, Colby, Withrow, Kroese SS2 Objectives: In flight nitrous vent test (on pylon) Feather flight Results: Objectives complete. […]

Arkyd 100 spacecraft. (Credit: Planetary Resources)

NASA has selected Arkyd Astronautics, the fully-owned subsidiary of the asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources,  for a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract for work on advanced software to better guide robotic spacecraft in their exploration of and sample return missions from near Earth objects.

“A real-time convex optimizer named COARSE (Convex Optimizer for Asteroid Rendezvous and Sampling Return) is proposed in order to efficiently guide path planning operations as well as spacecraft guidance and control,” according to the proposal summary. “COARSE consists of a series of high level goals with specific set of execution steps, rather than complex interaction with ground control. This proposal plans to develop and simulate a basic optimizer for the purpose of a robotic spacecraft in proximity operations to an asteroid for a sample return mission, and implement in a spacecraft avionics software environment.”

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Orbital Sciences Corporation will roll out its Antares launch vehicle at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Saturday in advance of its maiden launch scheduled for between April 17 and 19. Meanwhile, technicians have successfully mated the first Cygnus pressurized cargo vehicle with its service module for launch on a subsequent flight.

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First flight test completed on UAV.

PITTSBURGH, PA – APR 4, 2013 (Astrobotic PR)  — Last week Astrobotic successfully flew a sensor package designed to guide spacecraft safely to the surface of asteroids, moons, planets, and beyond. The flight occurred on an unmanned helicopter operated by a pilot on the ground.

The flights are preparation for demonstration of this capability on a propulsive lander similar to Astrobotic’s Griffin.  Astrobotic was selected by NASA for flight opportunities on a propulsive lander which culminate in a fully autonomous landing demonstration with hazard detection, trajectory planning, and closed-loop control.

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