Evry, France, January 8, 2013 (Arianespace PR) — After an especially successful year in 2012, Arianespace is gearing up for the New Year with the constant aim of further strengthening its world leadership in the launch services market.

Ten years of uninterrupted success

With 53 successful launches in a row, Ariane 5 closed out 2012 on a high note, marking ten years of uninterrupted success. This is an extraordinary level of reliability, largely unrivaled in the launch industry.

The launcher logged perfect countdowns throughout the year, ensuring on-time launches and clearly reflecting the skills and commitment of the people who produce and operate Ariane 5.

Arianespace’s family of three launch vehicles performed ten launches in a year from the Guiana Space Center for the first time in 2012: seven by Ariane 5, two by Soyuz and one by Vega. Arianespace set another record as well, sending nearly 75 metric tons into orbit.

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NASA Commercial Crew Briefing

Participants

• Phil McAlister, NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development director
• Ed Mango, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager
• Rob Meyerson, Blue Origin president and program manager
• John Mulholland, The Boeing Co. Commercial Programs Space Exploration vice president and program manager
• Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada Corp vice president and SNC Space Systems chairman
• Garrett Reisman, Space Exploration Technologies Commercial Crew project manager

Phil McAlister
NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager

• Partnerships are very difficult – public private partnerships – makes challenges even greater
• These partnerships going very well
• NASA’s role is to facilitating the development – not do the development
• $1.5 billion awarded so far….
  • CCDev 1: $50 million
  • CCDev 2: $315 million
  • CCiCAP: $1.1 Billion
  • Certification: $29.6 million
• McAlister goes through the various cooperative activities being undertaken, including technical meetings, reimburseable Space Act Agreements, etc.
• Close to 50 Space Act Agreements just with commercial crew partners – allows them to use NASA facilities and benefit from NASA expertise and experience

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TORONTO, Jan. 9, 2013 (AXE PR) — AXE® is going where only few have gone before by giving guys the ultimate out-of-this-world experience: a trip to space.  To recruit guys for this once-in-a-lifetime epic journey, AXE® is creating the AXE Apollo™ Space Academy (A.A.S.A) with one of the first men to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin.  Beginning today, by joining A.A.S.A at AXEApollo.com, guys and girls will have a chance to compete for one of 22 tickets to travel to space on a flight with international space agency, Space Expedition Corporation (SXC).

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WhiteKnightTwo descends as it flies chase for SpaceShipTwo during a drop test on Aug. 11, 2012.

Exton, PA, USA, January 7, 2013 (AGI PR)—Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI), the producer of commercial modeling and analysis software for the space, defense and intelligence communities, today announced that Virgin Galactic is using its Systems Tool Kit (STK) Aircraft Mission Modeler (AMM) software to create realistic simulated flight paths for WhiteKnightTwo, a jet-powered heavy-lift aircraft designed by Scaled Composites.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 8, 2013 (GenCorp PR) — GenCorp Inc., headquartered in Sacramento, California, announced today that it has received a modification to the request for additional information (“Second Request”) from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) in connection with the Company’s proposed acquisition of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corporation.

The modification excludes large and medium liquid rocket engines for launch vehicles and spacecraft from the scope of the FTC’s investigation of the proposed acquisition. United Technologies has received a similar modification to the Second Request letter it received.

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I had only two wishes for Christmas. Can you guess what they were?

A trip to Hawaii? Well, yes. But, that really wasn’t—

Winning a $100 million lottery jackpot? That would have been great, to0. But…any other guesses?

The Eagles winning the Super Bowl? No, I gave up on that waaay before Christmas. I mean, what the hell happened?!

OK. Since you’re way off, I’ll just tell you: My two wishes for Christmas were to see SpaceShipTwo in powered flight and the Lynx making its first runway hop from the Mojave Air and Space Port by the end of the 2012.

Neither of these wishes came true. Which means 2013 –best known thus far as the year not wiped out by the Mayan apocalypse — just got a whole lot better.

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Washington D.C. (CSF PR) – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation announced today that several companies have joined the organization.

“Interest and activity in commercial spaceflight continue to blossom at both traditional and new space companies,” said CSF President Michael Lopez-Alegria. “It is very satisfying to see the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s membership expand to include such a preponderance of the players in the commercial space panorama.”

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Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft will use landing bags. (Credit: Boeing)

The Boeing Company has a big job ahead in 2013 in the development of its seven-person CST-100 spacecraft. The company is scheduled to complete 13 milestones out of a total of 19 as part of the NASA funded Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) program.

Some of the key milestones for the coming year include:

• Service Module Propulsion System Critical Design Review
• Launch Vehicle Adapter Critical Design Review
• Emergency Detection System (EDS) Standalone Testing.

Boeing completed the first three of its 19 milestones last year for $126.9 million. The company is scheduled to complete an additional three milestones during the first four months of 2014.

A full list of 2013 milestones are shown below.
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Bigelow Aerospace BEAM module (brown) attached to the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

Bigelow Aerospace and NASA have signed an agreement that could see an inflatable module attached to the International Space Station, Space News reported today.

The details are behind a pay wall, but the deal is reported to be worth $17.8 million for preliminary work on the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM).  This would be an inflatable addition that would prove out technologies for future space facilities, including Bigelow’s own commercial space stations.

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PHOENIX, Jan. 7, 2013 (Space Access Society PR) — The dates for our next annual conference on the business, technology, and politics of radically cheaper access to space, Space Access ’13, are set. Conference sessions will begin 9 am Thursday April 11th and end 6 pm Saturday April 13th, 2013.

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