Atlas V launches OTV3 into orbit from Cape Canaveral. (Credit: Pat Corkery, United Launch Alliance.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., (Dec. 11, 2012) – A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket successfully launched the third Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-3) for the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO) at 1:03 p.m. EST today from Space Launch Complex-41. The OTV, also known as the X-37B, supports space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept of operations development for long duration and reusable space vehicle technologies. The first two OTV missions also were successfully launched by ULA respectively on April 22, 2010 and March 5, 2011.

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Video Caption: Masten Space Systems successfully tests a regeneratively cooled Katana class engine, the KA6A. The Katana class engines are rated up to 4,000lbf of thrust with this engine running at ~2,800lbf during this test. Masten has been designing, testing and improving several key pieces of enabling flight hardware and during this test evolution we demonstrate the successful integration of some of those items. Key hardware in this test include: […]

Sierra Nevada Corporation is planning drop tests of its Dream Chaser shuttle at Edwards Air Force base no later than the end of March, Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Mark Sirangelo tells NASASpaceflight.com. The Colorado company will conduct the test in cooperation with NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The results of the test were fed into the planning for the final CCDev-2 (Commercial Crew Development) objective of a high-altitude free flight, or […]

The Angara rocket family. (Credit: Allocer)

Space News is reporting that Kazcosmos wants to refocus the Baiterek launch complex originally intended for the new Angara rocket to handling Zenit launches:

In testimony to the Kazakh parliament, KazCosmos Director Talgat Musabayev said the Baiterek complex has suffered from Russian delays. Its estimated cost has risen more than sevenfold, he said. He did not give a specific figure in his presentation.

Musabayev said reorienting Baiterek to take advantage of the Baikonur infrastructure built for the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket would be much less expensive than the original plan based on Russia’s Angara rocket, now in development.

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MOSCOW (Energomash/Roscosmos PR) — Experts at Energomash and RSC Applied Chemistry who are working on a specially designed experimental setup have obtained the first experimental batch of the latest high-performance rocket fuel, acetyl.

The results confirmed the previously conducted theoretical studies, and showed the effectiveness of the technology for production of the new fuel.

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NASA’s Space Launch System buffet model in NASA’s Langley Researcher Center’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel. The SLS is America’s next heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. (Credit: NASA/LaRC)

By Sasha Congiu
NASA’s Langley Research Center

At NASA facilities around the country, engineers are developing America’s first exploration-class rocket since the Saturn V launched astronauts to the moon. The Space Launch System (SLS) will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit to destinations such as an asteroid and eventually Mars. To enable some of these new capabilities, members of the Aeroelasticity Branch of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. tested a ten-foot-long buffet model of the Space Launch System in Langley’s Transonic Dynamics Tunnel (TDT).

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA announced Monday the next step in its plan to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three companies to conduct activities under contracts that will enable future certification of commercial spacecraft as safe to carry humans to the International Space Station.

Advances made by these American companies during the first contract phase known as the certification products contracts (CPC) will begin the process of ensuring integrated crew transportation systems will meet agency safety requirements and standards to launch American astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States, ending the agency’s reliance on Russia for these transportation services. The second phase of certification will result in a separately competed contract.

CPC contractors are:

— The Boeing Company, Houston, $9,993,000
— Sierra Nevada Corporation Space System, Louisville, Colo., $10,000,000
— Space Exploration technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif., $9,589,525

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This week on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston…. 1. Monday, Dec.10, 2012, 2-3:30 PM PST (5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CST): We welcome back BOB ZIMMERMAN for his space perspective, 2012 summary, and crystal ball gazing for 2013 space development & exploration. 2. Tuesday, December 11 , 2012, 7-8:30 PM PST (10-11:30 PM EST, 9-10:30 PM CST):OPEN LINES. All space & STEM topics welcome. We encourage new callers […]