One company (SpaceX) went to space. Twice. Other companies (Orbital, VG, XCOR, Masten, Stratolaunch, et.al.) got closer to going to space. A bunch of people (Planetary Resources, Golden Spike, Sarah Brightman) announced ambitious plans to go there at some point. And the world didn’t end. Yet. I think that pretty much sums things up.
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
It looks like we’re going over the old fiscal cliff tonight. No deal has been finalized and the current Congress will end its session later today without a vote. If we’re lucky, the Senate will reach a deal by the end of today, and the new Congress will vote on it when it convenes on Thursday. If the deal looks like it will pass, the markets will react calmly when […]
“So when you’re near me, darling can’t you hear me
S. O. S.
The love you gave me, nothing else can save me
S. O. S.
When you’re gone
How can I even try to go on?
When you’re gone
Though I try how can I carry on?”
— ABBA, “S.O.S.”
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
The Save Our Spaceport (S.O.S.) Coalition is up and running with a website to support for an extension of the informed consent law for Virgin Galactic and other future tenants of Spaceport America.
So, after lengthy negotiations, years of construction, extravagant promises of new jobs and businesses by politicians and a British billionaire, and the investment of $209 million in taxpayer’s money, New Mexico faces the following stark choice in the new year:
Sign away all the rights of passengers and their heirs to sue for injuries or deaths aboard space vehicles except in cases of gross negligence or intentional harm
or
Face the prospect of having an empty spaceport miles from anywhere with no discernible use when Virgin Galactic picks up and goes elsewhere and no one else will move in.
This would be funny (or even farcical) if it didn’t involve so much public money.
When in crisis, always consult The King! TCB, baby. Taking care of business!
This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. 1. Monday, Dec.31, 2012, 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CST): HAPPY NEW YEAR! TOM OLSON joins us for our annual space year in review. Looking back on 2012 and looking forward to 2013. 2. Tuesday, January 1, 2013 7-8:30 PM PST (10-11:30 PM EST, 9-10:30 PM CST): HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE. NO SHOW TODAY DUE TO NEW […]
If the “fiscal cliff” fiasco is not sufficient evidence of Congress’s complete dysfunction, consider the following bill that extends the expiring commercial launch indemnification regime by two years. The House of Representatives approved the measure on Nov. 13 and sent it along to the Senate the following day. 112th CONGRESS2d Session H. R. 6586 AN ACTTo extend the application of certain space launch liability provisions through 2014. Be it enacted […]
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
In a declaration adopted at their November meeting, ESA’s ministers tasked Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain with overseeing as process designed to evolve the space agency and to improve its cooperation with the European Union (EU).
The move comes in response to an effort by the European Commission to forge closer links between the two independent organizations, which have overlapping responsible for space policy and activities on the continent. These efforts could eventually end up with ESA coming under the control of the union sometime during the next decade.
Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin. (Credit: Roscosmos)
Izvestia has published a lengthy interview with Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin, who touched upon issues that included singer Sarah Brightman’s planned space tourism flight, upcoming Angara flight tests, American interest in purchasing a new rocket engine, Russia’s launch record in 2012, and the general state of the industry.
Key excerpts, courtesy of Google Translate, are reproduced below. All the sections involve translated quotes except for the one on Angara flights.
On Sarah Brightman’s Planned Space Tourism Flight
“We are not opposed to training, but so far we have no contract to that effect has been signed. By agreement between Roscosmos and NASA planned extremely long expedition to the ISS crew of two in 2015, people will spend at the station for a year. At the same time, the warranty term of the spacecraft Soyuz in orbit – no more than six months. That is, during the extremely long expedition ship docked to the ISS needs to be changed. Question – how to do it? You can put it in two tourists and 10 days to return back. The second option – to do some expedition. But the 10-day expedition is impractical – in fact it will be hidden in the performance of tourism trained astronauts. You can extend the life of the expedition up to 40 days, but then on the ISS will not be six and nine. All this pulls the start of another cargo ship ‘Progress,’ and this is serious money we are unlikely to find, as the program up to 2015 is already laid out. Therefore, we have not decided who to put in two free seats. Send our trained astronaut to have it on 10 days to fly there in fact a tourist by the state – perhaps it is not entirely justified. Moreover, our European colleagues have told us that they would like to purchase a vacant chair for her astronaut. Now we weigh all the ‘pros’ and ‘cons.’ Plan to take a decision in the I quarter of next year.”
Russia will spend about $70 billion on its space industry through the end of this decade in an effort to improve capabilities and foster innovation, according to media reports:
Russia will spend 2.1 trillion rubles (about $70 billion) under a state program for the development of the national space industry in 2013-2020, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday….
“The program will enable our country to effectively participate in forward-looking projects, such the ISS [International Space Station], the study of the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies in the solar system,” he said.
Orbital Sciences Corporation is planning two launches of its new Antares booster over the next four months, with the second carrying a Cygnus freighter destined for berthing at the International Space Station: A successful demonstration flight of Orbital’s two stage Antares rocket from MARS including an inaugural rendezvous of its Cygnus cargo craft with the six-person orbiting science laboratory targeted for April would bring the Dulles, Va., based company’s abbreviated […]