BOULDER, Colo.,  Aug 07, 2012 (Uwingu PR) — Uwingu LLC, a space-themed, for-profit start up, is conducting a crowd-sourced funding campaign to launch an ongoing series of public engagement projects. Uwingu’s mission is to use proceeds from those projects to generate funding for space exploration, research, and education efforts around the world. Uwingu’s crowd funding agent for this campaign is IndieGoGo (www.indiegogo.com/), a leader in the field.

The on-going battle over the U.S. Air Force’s efforts to bulk buy Atlas V and Delta IV rockets from United Launch Alliance has taken another turn: The U.S. Air Force should limit any bulk order of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rockets from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to three years’ worth of missions to give competing companies a chance to bring alternative vehicles to market, the leaders of the House […]

BBQ @Mojave Makers w/ Special Guest Tim Pickens Thursday August 9 6 PM – 8 PM Presented by Space Studies Institute & Mojave Makers, Building 82, 1347 Barnes St, Mojave, CA 93501 Itinerant inventor, rocket maker and raconteur Tim Pickens is our special guest for this first in a series of informal talks with informed Q & A. Tim worked in Mojave on SpaceShipOne as the original propulsion lead at […]

Rep. Dan Rohrabacher

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) have begun to quietly campaign to replace Rep. Ralph Hall as chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology next year, according to Stu Witt, General Manager and CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Witt and his staff hosted a visit by Smith last week to familiarize the Republican Congressman with commercial space activities being undertaken at the California spaceport. Rohrabacher will be visiting the desert facility next Wednesday, Witt added during a meeting of the East Kern Airport District board.

Witt said the visits are part of an effort by both Congressman to build up support for their bids to replace Hall, will step down after six years as head of the powerful committee. Under House rules imposed by the Republican leadership, chairmen are limited to three, two-year terms.

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After seven months of successes, the Russian launch industry has suffered another setback when a malfunctioning Breeze M upper stage sent a pair of Russian and Indonesian communications satellites into the wrong orbit. ITAR-TASS reports that “the upper stage engine unit worked for only seven seconds instead of planned 18 minutes and five seconds, and the satellites were not put into the planned orbits.”

The nation experienced a string of launch failures from late 2010 to Dec. 23, 2011. The ITAR-TASS story quotes former Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov, who was fired over the failures, as saying the problem is worse now because of the space agency abolished the department in charge of overseeing launch vehicles and upper stages. This makes it more difficult to identify those responsible for failures.

A press release from ILS explains the latest mishap.

RESTON, Virg. (ILS PR) — On 7 August at 1:32 a.m. local time, a Proton Breeze M vehicle carrying the Express MD2 and Telkom 3 satellites launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Proton M launch vehicle performed nominally, however, the Orbital Unit (OU), comprised of the Breeze M upper stage and the two spacecraft, did not properly reach its transfer orbit and was placed into an off-nominal intermediate orbit. The Aerospace Defense and Roscosmos, are currently monitoring the OU and efforts are now underway to establish contact with the Express MD2 and Telkom 3 satellites.

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SpaceShipTwo made another glide flight last Thursday, this time with feathering. Details below. Flight: WK2 91 – SS2 GF20 Date: 2 Aug 12 WK2 Flight Time: 1.6 hours SS2 Flight Time: 8 min WK2 Pilot: Siebold WK2 CoPilot: Mackay WK2 FTE: Bassett SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Nichols GS Crew: Binnie, Verderame, Kalogiannis, Bourgeois, Knupp, Tighe, Cassebeer, M. Fuchs WK2 Objectives: SS2 release mission Evaluate horizontal tail thermal protection WK2 […]

This week on The Space Show with David Livingston… 1. Monday, August 6, 2011 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome back DENNIS WINGO to discuss his blog article on lunar economic development. Please read https://denniswingo.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/changing-the-conversation-about-the-economic-development-of-the-moon. 2. Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): No show today as I am doing California Space Day with the AIAA. 3. Thursday, August […]

A very happy Curiosity team at NASA JPL in Pasadena very late on Sunday evening.

Curiosity’s shadow on Mars, the first photo returned after the landing on Sunday night. (Credit: NASA/JPL)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA’s most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

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