Cubesat

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR)  – NASA has chosen three teams to advance the state of the art for small spacecraft in the areas of communications, formation flying and docking systems. The cutting-edge space technology flights are expected to take place in 2014 and 2015.

All selected missions will employ nanosatellites conforming to the CubeSat standard. CubeSats are composed of four-inch, cube-shaped units with each having a volume of about one quart and a weight of approximately three pounds. CubeSats can be joined to create multiple-unit spacecraft. They readily can be accommodated as secondary payloads or rideshares on a number of space launch vehicles.
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Gale Crater Vista, in Glorious Color This is the first 360-degree panorama in color of the Gale Crater landing site taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover. The panorama was made from thumbnail versions of images taken by the Mast Camera. Scientists will be taking a closer look at several splotches in the foreground that appear gray. These areas show the effects of the descent stage’s rocket engines blasting the ground. What […]

Space News reports that NASA has begun to outline the process under which the space agency will certify commercial human space vehicles:

With an eye toward buying its first astronaut taxi services by 2017, NASA on Aug. 8 unveiled details about a safety certification process that will be conducted in parallel with the industry-led development of new crewed space transportation systems.

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BARCELONA, Spain (Barcelona Moon Team PR) — The Barcelona-based company, Galactic Suite, leading the industrial conglomerate, Barcelona Moon Team, announced it has signed a launch service contract for a Chinese rocket that will carry the Spanish robot to the Moon in June 2014 to attempt to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE, the largest incentivized competition offered to date, challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is one of four active competitions from X PRIZE Foundation, the leading nonprofit organization for creating and managing large-scale, global incentivized competitions.

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Video Caption: The first free flight of Nasa JSC’s Morpheus LOX-Methane vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket vehicle. It appears to have had a guidance failure. The heat of the methane burning then burst a LOX tank. The flight was at KSC.

Seattle, WA – 8 August 2012 (Spaceflight PR) — Spaceflight Inc. (Spaceflight) announced today that the USAF Space Development and Test Directorate has exercised a contract option to launch the Kestrel Eye 1 imaging nano-spacecraft on a commercial launch in 2013.

The United States Air Force’s Space Development and Test Directorate previously contracted with Spaceflight to evaluate commercial launch options for the STP Satellite-3 (STPSat-3) and Kestrel Eye 1 Tactical Imaging Spacecraft (Kestrel Eye) spacecraft.  After the conclusion of this feasibility study the Space Development and Test Directorate exercised a contract option to procure commercial launch services for the Kestrel Eye 1 spacecraft.

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A Titan rocket explodes just after liftoff. (Credit: USAF)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Incompetence. Corruption. An aging workforce. Few replacement workers. Low salaries. Rising costs. Abysmal morale. Declining quality. A lack of accountability. Zero transparency. And an extremely pissed off political leadership.

Russia’s space program has got ’em all. If there was ever a perfect storm for a government bureaucracy, Roscosmos is right smack in the middle of it following the failure of yet another Proton rocket on Monday. Its Breeze-M upper stage stranded two satellites in a useless orbit, once again shining a harsh spotlight on the increasingly decrepit state of that nation’s once mighty program.

Once again, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is calling a meeting amid a “crisis” atmosphere to demand answers, just like he did back in 2011 while holding Vladimir Putin’s presidential seat warm. At that time, a whole series of launch mishaps led to the firing of Roscosmos’ leader and the appointment of hard-line Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin as a special space and defense czar.

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To boldly go…. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

The Mojave Air and Space Port is making a series of infrastructure improvements designed to enhance services for existing tenants and users and to lure new companies to the High Desert test center.

The projects include improvements to two of the airport’s three runways, the extension of utilities to new areas, the installation of high-speed Internet services, and the development of a large building for meetings and special events.

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Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin. (Credit: Roscosmos)

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — On August 7 at the Federal Space Agency, V.A. Popovkin led a meeting of the Interagency Commission (IAC) to analyze the causes of abnormal start-up carrier rocket “Proton-M” with the upper block (RB), “the Briz-M” and the spacecraft “Express MD2 “and” Telkom-3 ‘, held on the eve of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

On the first day of the members of the ERM conducted a snapshot of the received telemetry data, from which you can draw a preliminary conclusion about the normal functioning of the management system booster “Briz-M”. It is also noted that the RB engine came out to the nominal thrust, resulting in automatic shutdown to happen.

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By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

During the East Kern Airport District (EKAD) meeting on Tuesday, one of the board members asked Stu Witt how busy things are at the Mojave Air and Space Port these days.

“Do you see my eyes?” the spaceport’s CEO and general manager replied.

Witt had been up early that day to help support Scaled Composites’ latest drop test of the SpaceShipTwo suborbital tourism vehicle. He was there to watch the spacecraft glide to a landing at 8:04 a.m. PDT, a time when most people aren’t even at work yet. The tower controller and firefighters had also turned out early to support the test flight.

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