Editor’s Note: Well, there you have the argument in a nutshell: New Mexico has fallen behind Florida and Texas in the race to restrict the rights of passengers and their heirs to sue Virgin Galactic and other companies for injuries and deaths from spaceflights. If they don’t catch up, their $209 million investment could be for naught. And all this is happening even before the first SpaceShipTwo flight has taken off from Spaceport America.
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
NASA has put the kibosh on Florida’s plan to obtain title to 150 acres of federal property at the north end of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for the construction of a commercial launch facility for SpaceX.
“The property identified in your request has not been reported as excess,” NASA Associate Administrator L. Seth Statler wrote in a Nov. 30 letter to Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll. “Furthermore, this property continues to serve NASA’s long-term mission requirements, as a buffer zone between NASA mission and local communities and as a possible site for future mission requirements.”
AJ26 test firing. (Credit: Aerojet)
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 18, 2013 (Aerojet PR) — Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE:GY) company, announced today that its AJ26 engine successfully completed a hot fire test this evening at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.
Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE:ORB), Aerojet and NASA monitored the full-duration test in support of the Antares™ rocket program. This is the eleventh AJ26 engine to be tested at Stennis.
January 16, 2013 (FSDC PR) — The Florida Space Coast Chapter of the National Space Society (NSS) has changed its name to the Florida Space Development Council (FSDC) to better reflect the group’s focus on assisting the development of a robust space-related economy in the state.
The FSDC will remain an active chapter of the NSS, working with other Florida chapters to support the NSS mission to promote social, economic, technological, and political change in order to expand civilization beyond Earth.
The good news: Europeans can soon show their pride in their space agency by buying ESA-branded shirts at the official online store. The bad news: it’s going to cost them an absurd amount of money to become walking billboards for ESA. Just how much money? Well, this much: ESA T-shirts: €64.00 ($85.14) and €90.00 ($119.73) ESA Polo Shirts: €108.00 ($143.67) ESA Sweatshirts: €174.00 ($231.47) Good lord! That’s just wrong in […]
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides was in Albuquerque yesterday, telling local business leaders that New Mexico has fallen behind other states in restricting the rights of passengers and their heirs to sue companies like his own in the event of injuries or deaths during spaceflights.
“The state of New Mexico and its taxpayers have made a huge investment in commercial space and in order to protect that investment, it needs to remain in relative parity with other states,” Whitesides said.
“The fact is that the current situation will keep companies from locating in New Mexico and at the spaceport. The bills would change that and would really open the door to new business,” he said.
Russian officials are not pleased that Kazakhstan has approved the launch of 12 Proton rockets from Baikonur in 2013 instead of the requested 17. Kazakhstan has cited environmental reasons for the restriction, saying that Proton uses a toxic fuel. Moscow may demand to review the cosmodrome lease agreement conditions, Iterfax-Kazakhstan reports, citing Interfax Division for Military News as quoting a source in the Russia’s space industry. “A possible scenario is […]
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Kern COG PR) — Kern Council of Governments (COG) will honor 16 individuals, organizations and programs for making major contributions to this area’s quality of life through innovative, cooperative efforts during its 22nd annual Regional Awards of Merit Program on March 7, 2013. Regional Awards of Merit recipients, as decided by a Kern COG Board subcommittee, are divided among nine broad categories and include: Local Government: Revitalize Mojave […]
Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) Updates Via Canadian Space Agency 2013-01-16 Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) Robotics to Resume on January 17 The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has cleared the International Space Station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, to continue work on the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) following a short delay to verify software settings in the robotic arm’s control system. Robotics engineering teams had discovered an intermittent anomaly in the software that controls […]
Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation
Presents
Plane Crazy Saturday!
January 19, 2013
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Free admission!
Come out to Mojave Airport for breakfast or lunch, listen to special guest Rick Hatton, President/CEO of 10 Tanker Air Carrier, at 11 a.m., and enjoy some time with other pilots and aviation minded friends!