With it being Saturday already back on the East Coast, former MirCorp CEO and convicted tax evader Walt Anderson is now a free man. And the Space Frontier Foundation is partying like its 1999.

Anderson, whose company MirCorp leased the Russian space station Mir during that final year of the 20th century, has been under house arrest at his parents home in Virginia since July as part of a nearly 8-year prison term in what the federal government has called the largest individual tax evasion case in history. He served most of the term in a federal prison in New Jersey.

The Space Frontier Foundation — which benefited from Anderson’s financial largess prior to his stay in the Big House — is having a “Flaming Mir” party in his honor on Saturday night at a restaurant in McLean, Virginia. The foundation is paying for drinks, light appetizers and desserts only, and it recommends attendees eat dinner before arriving. The RSVP email is [email protected]

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UPDATE: Apparently this story isn’t true. “A rep for the Academy-Award winning actress tells E! News that this story is false while adding that it “was invented a while ago” but has since ‘been adapted to fit this week’s events.’ Wow, British tabloids just going around making up shit about celebrities. Who knew? Congratulations are in order for newlywed and latest confirmed celebritynaut Kate Winslet. The “Titanic” star got hitched […]

NASA has issued a request for information (RFI) from companies interested in providing a common upper stage for use on future planetary missions. According to the RFI:

NASA is interested in utilizing a complete and independent upper stage that is compatible with existing launch vehicles using an industry standard set of payload adapters and electrical connectors. Of primary interest is a stage that provides an approximate delta-V capability of 3,000 m/sec (~10,000 ft/sec) given a payload of 500 kg (1100 lbs) and is able to support a payload range of approximately 400 to 3800 kg (880 to 8400 lbs). Both larger and smaller systems are of interest as well.

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Three 300-pound main parachutes gently lower a mockup Orion capsule to the ground during a test at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on Dec. 20. (Credit: NASA)

Yuma Proving Ground, NM (NASA PR) — NASA completed the latest in a series of parachute tests for its Orion spacecraft at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona, marking another step toward a first flight test in 2014. The test verified Orion can land safely even if one of its two drogue parachutes does not open during descent.

Orion will take humans farther into space than ever before, but one of the most challenging things the multipurpose vehicle will do is bring its crew home safely. Because it will return from greater distances, Orion will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere at speeds of more than 20,000 mph. After re-entry, the parachutes are all that will lower the capsule carrying astronauts back to Earth.

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Falcon 9 launch. (Credit: Chris Thompson)

ORBCOMM and SpaceX have reached a new $42.6 million agreement on for the launch of 18 OG2 communications satellites aboard Falcon 9 rockets over the next 18 months. The satellites were originally scheduled to be launched by smaller Falcon 1e rockets, but SpaceX opted not to develop the launch vehicle.

ORBCOMM disclosed the new agreement in a regulatory filing. The deal replaces one worked out between the two companies in August 2009. The launches are scheduled to take place between the second quarter of 2013 and the second quarter of 2014.

The regulatory filing is reproduced after the break.

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RSC Energia announced that it has completed the design of Russia’s next-generation human spacecraft, which is intended to debut the same year that the Soyuz will reach its 50th anniversary:

The proposed spacecraft is commonly known as PPTS (or Prospective Piloted Transport System) and RSC Energia won the tender to build it in 2009. Initially, 2015 was named as the date of the first test flight, but that was then shifted to 2018. Now, [Energia Chief Vitaly] Lopota has brought the test date forward again.

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (NASA PR) — The team designing America’s new flagship rocket has completed successfully a major technical review of the vehicle’s core stage. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) will take the agency’s Orion spacecraft and other payloads beyond low-Earth orbit, providing a new capability for human exploration.

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Google Lunar X Prize Teams The 33 teams that were once competing for the Google Lunar X Prize have now been reduced to 23 competitors. Some have dropped out, while others have merged with or been acquired by other teams. Most recently, Moon Express acquired the Rocket City Space Pioneers. With the deadline for winning the prize set for the end of 2015, additional drop outs and consolidations are likely. […]

ORLANDO, FLA., Dec. 19, 2012 (Earthrise Space PR) – Earthrise Space Inc., is proud to announce that they have gained Rapid Machining as a Suborbital Level sponsor. The Suborbital Level is the second-highest level that ESI has, making Rapid Machining a valuable member of the growing constellation of ESI sponsors.

ESI depends upon sponsors like Rapid Machining to help support the company’s efforts in pursuit of the Google Lunar X PRIZE. ESI’s “Sagan” rover is being designed to fulfill the requirements of the competition, which includes landing a privately-funded rover on the lunar surface, having it traverse 500 meters and then transmit data and images back to Earth. ESI could not complete these goals without these vital sponsorships.

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Stratolaunch vehicle. (Credit: Stratolaunch)

Paul Allen’s Stratolaunch Systems is eying the Kennedy Space Center as its base of operations, beginning with a demonstration flight of the air-launch system from the former Shuttle Landing Facility in 2017, CEO Gary Wentz tells Florida Today:

Stratolaunch, which was publicly introduced in December 2011, hopes to provide lower-cost launches by freeing itself from ground-based range infrastructure and weather restrictions and enabling quicker flight turnarounds.

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