Space News has the grim NASA budget figures:
NASA will see a $1.3 billion budget cut this year under a stopgap spending bill the U.S. Congress approved March 21.
After absorbing across-the-board cuts known as sequestration, NASA stands to receive $16.5 billion for 2013 — an amount 7.3 percent below the $17.8 billion the agency has been held to since 2011 under a series of short-term spending resolutions Congress has been passing in lieu of annual appropriations bills….
Which Google Lunar X Prize teams are serious? Which ones are little more than vaporware? And which teams have a serious chance of winning?
The answers to those questions will get a little bit clearer next week. The 23 teams competing to land a rover on the moon will meet in Santiago, Chile, beginning next Tuesday for their annual Summit.
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems is putting the Engineering Test Article of its Dream Chaser through a Ground Resonance Test at the company’s facilities. The testing is standard for aircraft and helicopters and confirms that vibrations from machinery inside the craft won’t make it shake itself apart.
Preparations for wind tunnel testing continue on track following a recent test readiness review with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The testing, scheduled for later this month then in May and June, is tied to one of the milestones SNC will meet to reduce risk in spacecraft designs during the agency’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.
Jean-Yves Le Gall
In an appearance before the French Senate, outgoing Arianespace Chief Executive Jean-Yves Le Gall — who is expected to take over the French space agency CNES next month — almost had something nice to say about Elon Musk and SpaceX.
In his 10 years as chief executive of Arianespace, Le Gall has been routinely withering in his disparagement of SpaceX, saying the company has not shown it is able to launch successfully with sufficient frequency to succeed in the market.
But in recent months, Le Gall has modulated his view of SpaceX. As he prepares to take the reins of CNES, an event likely to occur by mid-April, he even complimented — in a back-handed way — SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
MOJAVE, CALIF., March 27, 2013 (Stratolaunch PR) – Stratolaunch Systems today opened a new hangar that will eventually house the world’s largest aircraft during the assembly and testing stages, the aerospace development company announced. The hangar opening brings Stratolaunch Systems one step closer to its goal of delivering a breakthrough air-launch system that provides safe, flexible, and affordable orbital access to space. The 103,257-square-foot hangar is one of the two […]
Technicians load cargo into the first ISS-bound Cygnus freighter. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)
Space Station Cargo Loaded in to Cargo Module at Wallops
Orbital Sciences Update
March 2013
Orbital’s Cygnus Cargo team recently loaded cargo into the COTS Demonstration Pressurized Cargo Module (PCM) in advance of the COTS Demonstration Flight. The cargo from NASA arrived at Wallops Flight Facility building H-100 by truck from Houston Texas on March 19th and was accepted by the Cygnus team that evening. (more…)
Artist’s conception of Lynx Cub Payload Carrier internal view. (Credit: United States Rocket Academy)
College Station, Texas, March 28, 2013 (USRA PR) – A new payload carrier promises to dramatically reduce the cost of access to space for small scientific and education payloads.
The Lynx Cub Payload Carrier was announced today by the United States Rocket Academy. The Lynx Cub Carrier will fly on the XCOR Lynx spacecraft, now under construction at the Mojave Air and Space Port, and carry up to 12 experiments on each flight.
Dragon recovery (Credit: SpaceX)
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — A Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft successfully completed the company’s second cargo flight to the International Space Station on Tuesday, March 26, with a 12:36 p.m. EDT splashdown in the Pacific Ocean a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico.
Video Caption: 67 second engine test featuring XCOR’s 2,500 lb-thrust Lynx main engine (one out of four engines). This engine is fed entirely by XCOR’s revolutionary rocket propellant piston pumps, which are far more cost effective and manufacturable than turbopumps. Both the liquid oxygen oxydizer and kerosene fuel are being pumped into the engine using this techonology. For more information, see our press release at https://parabolicarc.com/2013/03/26/xcor-reaches-key-engine-milestone/
