A VASIMR powered space tug. (Credit: Ad Astra Rocket Company)

Houston, Texas (Ad Astra PR) – Ad Astra Rocket Company reports two important advances with its VX-200 high power VASIMR® engine prototype:

1) a significant increase in its high power performance over previous test data obtained in late 2010, and
2) demonstration of the VASIMR®-unique feature called “Constant Power Throttling” (CPT).

These results will be presented on Monday July 30, 2012 at the 48th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Joint Propulsion Conference in Atlanta, Ga. USA, in the paper entitled: “VASIMR® VX-200 Improved Throttling Range.”

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The Planetary Society is holding its Planetfest Event this Saturday and Sunday in Pasadena to celebrate the landing of the Mars Curiosity Rover. The details: August 4, 2012, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm August 5, 2012, 2:00 pm – 11:30 pm or later Pasadena Convention Center 300 E. Green Street Pasadena, CA 91101 Tickets The program will feature leaders in space exploration, including:  Charles Elachi, Director of NASA Jet Propulsion […]

Phoenix satellite concept. (Credit: DARPA)

Louisville, CO, July 30th, 2012 (Altius PR) — Altius Space Machines of Louisville, CO is delighted to announce that we have signed a contract with DARPA to provide engineering services as part of the DARPA Phoenix Program. Associated with Altius Space Machines in this contract is ROCCOR LLC. of Louisville, CO., Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation of Pasadena, CA, and The University of Colorado at Boulder, CO.

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This week on The Space Show with David Livingston: 1. Monday, July 30, 2011 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome SUSAN HOLDEN MARTIN, Executive Director of The Mars Society. Ms. Martin will update us regarding the upcoming convention and more. 2. Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): We welcome RICHARD DAVID, CEO of New Space Global, LLC to […]

Hi all.

I am making my way from Santa Clara to back to Mojave this afternoon. It’s a trip that will take about five hours and cover roughly 300 miles, but the distance traveled cannot be measured solely in time and distance. Instead, it is a voyage between two very different cultures.

Silicon Valley is a green, leafy place with shiny office buildings where talented engineers sit in cubicles writing software that makes billions of dollars. That software has helped to make user-friendly computers ubiquitous and connected the world via the Internet.

Silicon Valley has long since transitioned from the days where engineers labored in garages to produce the first personal computers. Most of the hardware production has all be shipped away to be done by low-wage workers in distant locales.

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A 24-minute Euronews interview/infomercial with Virgin Galactic Commercial Director Stephen Attenborough. The highlights: “much closer than we were” to commercial flights “final stage of that journey” “go from milestone to milestone” “hope between 18 and 24 months” to begin commercial operations “driven by safety” “hybrid rocket motor…chose because of its reliability and safety” “right partners, right technology” It’s the same stuff they’ve been saying for years, right down to the […]

United Technologies Corporation has created a new UTC Aerospace Systems business unit by acquiring aerospace parts maker Goodrich Corporation and combining it with UTC’s Hamilton Sundstrand Space Systems, which has been making spacesuits, life-support equipment and other components for America’s space program for nearly 50 years.

To finance its Goodrich acquisition, UTC has agreed to sell Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne to GenCorp (owner of Aerojet) for $550 million. The company will also sell its Hamilton Sundstrand Industrial unit to BC Partners and The Carlyle Group for $3.46 billion. The industrial unit manufactures highly engineered, mission-critical pumps and compressors for the global industrial, infrastructure and energy markets.

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HOUSTON (NanoRacks PR) — The first commercial laboratory in space just welcomed a new sophisticated research capability. With the docking of the Japanese HTV-3 cargo ship, also known as ‘white stork’ or Kounotori 3, the NanoRacks’ Plate Reader is now at the International Space Station. The NanoRacks’ MD Plate Reader-1 holds 96 samples allowing veteran space researchers and those new to space to perform the same state of the art […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Space Frontier Foundation requested that this story be taken down at 4:20 PDT. Apparently, they set it to post at 10 p.m. UTC and not 10 p.m. PDT. I complied with this request against my better judgment.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (SFF PR) — The competition judges have awarded Space Ground Amalgam, LLC first place in the 2012 NewSpace Business Plan Competition and presented them with the $100,000 prize. Digital Solid State Propulsion, LLC earned second place in the competition and the $10,000 prize. In a last minute addition, Honorable Mention is given to Terapio Corporation for providing an unusually commendable technology that will address one of the inherent risks of space settlement. The hosting organization, the Space Frontier Foundation, and judges congratulate the winners and thank all the finalists for their participation. The awards were presented on July 28th at the NewSpace Awards Gala, the culminating event of the NewSpace 2012 Conference.

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George Whitesides CEO and President, Virgin Galactic George has a couple of videos, including one we haven’t seen in full length now. “It’s all about space, space is what it’s all about to me.” Exciting moment whose achievements will echo for thousands of years Called out a customer in the audience — 1 guy — don’t know who he is — didn’t name him Dave Clark is chief salesman and […]