WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., for a $23.3 million contract to develop engineering demonstrations and risk reduction concepts for future advanced boosters for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS).
Aerojet is one of four companies contracted under a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) to improve the affordability, reliability and performance of an advanced booster for a future version of the SLS heavy-lift rocket.
Statement by Marion C. Blakey, President and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association in response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Arlington, Va. – The President’s State of the Union address laid out much of the damage that sequestration would do to our economy and national security; now is the time for action. The devastating impacts of sequestration are well documented and already being felt. With such a fragile […]
The Cameron County Commissioners Court has appointed seven directors to oversee the brand new Cameron County Spaceport Development Corporation, whose goal is to help establish a commercial launch facility on the Texas Gulf Coast for use by SpaceX and to attract other space companies to the area.
SpaceX is eying a location near Brownsville for its commercial launches. It has requested an environmental impact study be done on the site. The California-based company also has been considering locations in Florida, Puerto Rico, Georgia and Hawaii.
My take on the meteor explosion/close asteroid pass wake-up call:
My guess is that within a week or so, the world will have hit the snooze button and largely forgotten everything because that’s simply the sort of world we live in. We get wake up calls almost every day, about something or another, but life is so hectic and there are so many things to do and so little cash to spare to do them, that we just move on to the next crisis without giving the last one even a second thought.
Now, there are calls for the government to do something before a real tragedy occurs. That will prove difficult because NASA can’t even do all the things it’s asked to do already with the money it is given. If sequestration hits on March 1, it will have even less money to do all those things. In the battle to shrink government, the damage that results to individual programs, however valuable or indispensable, is acceptable collateral damage.
If sequestration takes effect on March 1, NASA would be hit with a cut of $726.7 million from the President’s FY 2013 budget request, with more than half the reduction coming out of the Commercial Crew Program.
“After sequestration, NASA would not be able to fund milestones planned to be allocated in the fourth quarter of FY 2013 for Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) such as the SpaceX Inflight Abort Test Review, the Boeing Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control Engine Development Test, and the Sierra Nevada Corporation Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2,” the space agency said in a letter to Congress signed by Administrator Charlie Bolden.
“Overall availability of commercial crew transportation services would be significantly delayed, thereby extending our reliance on foreign providers for crew transportation to the International Space Station,” the letter states.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 14, 2013 (ME PR) — Moon Express, Inc., a provider of commercial and scientific missions to the Moon, announced today that award-winning rocket pioneer Tim Pickens has been hired by the company as Chief Propulsion Engineer, responsible for overall propulsion architectures used in Earth departure stages, lunar breaking stages and lander propulsion systems.
Among Pickens’ responsibilities at Moon Express will be to lead its Huntsville office, located near the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Pickens will split his time between the Moon Express Huntsville office and its corporate headquarters at the NASA Ames Research Park in Silicon Valley.
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA and its international partners are targeting Friday, March 1, as the launch date for the next cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX).
Launch is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. EST (9:10 a.m. CST) from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Mojave, California, February 14, 2013 (XCOR PR) — A trio of new senior appointments in the Business Development Team were announced today at XCOR Aerospace, signaling the continued progress and confidence in the Lynx® suborbital spacecraft program. Greg Claxton joins XCOR where he will lead the Retail Sales Channel, Khaki Rodway has been promoted to lead the Payloads Sales Channel, and Lisa Rigano has been hired to lead Product and Customer Experience Development.
Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares Update The planned first stage propulsion system “hot fire” test of Orbital’s new Antares medium-class rocket was halted in the final seconds of the countdown by the rocket’s flight computer, which detected an anomalous condition. After a preliminary overnight review of the data from the hot fire test attempt on February 13, Orbital’s Antares team has identified low pressurization levels of a “nitrogen purge” of the […]
The National Space Society is once again looking for an new Executive Director following the resignation of Paul Damphousse, who led the non-profit advocacy group for just over a year. In a letter to the NSS Board of Directors, the former Marine pilot indicated he had unspecified conflicts with members of the governing structure, Space News reports. “During the last year in this role it has become abundantly clear, however, […]
