Jim Balentine

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

On Tuesday, the Mojave Air and Space Port governing body appointed Jim Balentine to a two-year term to fill an empty seat on the Board of Directors.

Balentine, who had served on the board since 1995, left the body last month after losing his bid for re-election. In November, he came in fourth in a race for three seats in a field that included challenger Allen Peterson and incumbents Dick Rutan and Cathy Hansen.

Although Hansen was re-elected, she had resigned her seat a month earlier for personal reasons. That left an open position on the five-member board.

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Richard Branson hangs off the side of the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space in New Mexico. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Starting on Tuesday, the taxpayers of New Mexico will begin to see the first returns on their $209 million investment in Spaceport America – the futuristic launch base they funded in the desert for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic suborbital tourism company.

Virgin Galactic’s first monthly payments – $83,333 in facilities rent and $2,500 in ground rent – are dwarfed by the cost of the spaceport and the space plane that will fly from it. However, they constitute a major milestone in a bold and risky effort to jump start a suborbital space tourism industry that, to date anyway, has been all bucks and no Buck Rogers.

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Leroy Hood

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL., CASIS PR (January 14, 2013)– Dr. Leroy Hood, a member of the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) board of directors, and president of the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), will be one of 12 renowned researchers awarded the National Medal of Science by President Barack Obama in early 2013.

The National Medal of Science is one of the highest honors bestowed by the United States government upon scientists, engineers, and inventors. It was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation.

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has awarded grants to nine universities for advanced development activities for the nation’s next heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).

The agency is providing approximately $2.25 million that will be shared by all the proposals under this NASA Research Announcement to seek innovative and affordable solutions to evolve the launch vehicle from its initial lift capability to a larger, future version of the rocket, which will carry humans farther into deep space than ever before. NASA sought proposals in a variety of areas, including concept development, trades and analyses, propulsion, structures, materials, manufacturing, avionics and software.

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Video Caption: Fill’er up! The CSA’s Mathieu Caron explains the next phase of RRM in which Dextre will simulate refueling a mock satellite with liquid ethanol

This week on The Space Show with David Livingston: 1. Monday, Jan. 14, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CST): No show today as am teaching at UND.. 2. Tuesday, January 15, 2013 7-8:30 PM PST (10-11:30 PM EST, 9-10:30 PM CST): OPEN LINES. First time callers are welcome, all space topics are welcome. 3. Friday January 18, 2013, 9:30-11 AM PST (11:30- 1 PM CST, 12:30PM-2:00 […]

Buran shuttle and Energia rocket.

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

With America (or, at least its esteemed Congress, gentlemen engineers all) determined to build the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) regardless of the cost to the national treasury or the damage done to far more pressing priorities (like getting our astronauts back into orbit on U.S. vehicles), the Russians have begun dusting off old proposals for super boosters of their own.

In this case, the Russian need to emulate the Americans is somewhat less blatant than the follow-the-leader cloning process that resulted Soviet Union’s ill-fated, single flight Buran space shuttle of the 1980’s. However, it does involves much of the same launch vehicle hardware, which should set off plenty of alarm bells right there.

Yes, the Soviet Empire may have died and, with it, the mighty space program that had once sent shudders of fear through the West. But, the individual initiatives of that era continue to live on, although in somewhat altered states and, unfortunately, possessing many of the same problems.

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VIDEO CAPTION: DARPA’s SeeMe program aims to give mobile, US warfighters overseas access to on-demand, space-based tactical information in remote and beyond-line-of-sight conditions. If successful, SeeMe will provide timely imagery to warfighters of their immediate surroundings via handheld devices. Editor’s Note: The satellites are the payloads for DARPA’s Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program, which aims to put 100-lb. satellites into orbit for less than $1 million apiece. Last […]

A. Thomas Young

A. Thomas Young, the former director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Goddard Space Flight Center and former president and chief operating officer of Martin Marietta, is the latest appointment the revamped Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) Board of Directors.

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Legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin announces the creation of the LYNX Space Academy. Join now at https://www.lynxapollo.com for your chance to go to space. Editor’s Note: Another problem with embedding. There’s some glitch with Word Press where I end up losing the embed code for some reason. I save the post, it’s there, and then for some reason it disappears. Very strange. Something to do with AutoSaves.