Waimea, Hawaii, July 26, 2012 (ILOA/Moon Express PR) – The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), led by American businessman/educator Steve Durst, plans to place an astronomical observatory on the Moon to capture never before seen images of the Galaxy/Stars, Moon and Earth and broadcast them in support of the worldwide Galaxy Forum 21st Century Education program.

A ‘Global Demonstration’ of the International Lunar Observatory precursor instrument (ILO-X) was conducted by ILOA and Moon Express and hosted by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope during the late hours of July 23 from the summit of Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii.

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Felix Baumgartner landed safely yesterday after jumping from 96,640ft (29,455m) at a top speed of 536mph (863kph) over Roswell, N.M. This was Baumgartner’s second test dive before he tries to set a new dive record this Fall under the Red Bull Stratos project.

Live stream by Ustream

From left to right: Dr. Franklin Chang Díaz, CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company, Dr. René Castro, Minister of Environment and Energy, Dr. Alfio Piva, First Vice President of Costa Rica (as agreement witness), Jorge Villalobos, RECOPE’s CEO and Dr. José Zaglul, president of EARTH University, sign the cooperation agreements at Ad Astra Rocket facilities in Liberia, Costa Rica.

Liberia, Costa Rica (Ad Astra PR) — Ad Astra Rocket Company, Costa Rica, along with Costa Rica’s government owned oil refinery “Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo” (RECOPE), EARTH University and Costa Rica’s Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET), signed today two agreements related to research and development of technologies based on the use hydrogen as an alternative fuel.

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Greeting from Silicon Valley! I drove up from Mojave yesterday to cover the NewSpace conference that starts today and runs through Saturday. It was a nice drive through the spectacular Tehachapis and then north through the Central Valley on the I-5 where thousands of square miles of farmland are in mid-summer peak. It appears to be apple harvesting season here in California; I must have passed 10 trucks filled to […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — The rocket that will launch humans farther into space than ever before passed a major NASA review Wednesday. The Space Launch System (SLS) Program completed a combined System Requirements Review and System Definition Review, which set requirements of the overall launch vehicle system. SLS now moves ahead to its preliminary design phase.

The SLS will launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft and other payloads, and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

These NASA reviews set technical, performance, cost and schedule requirements to provide on-time development of the heavy-lift rocket. As part of the process, an independent review board comprised of technical experts from across NASA evaluated SLS Program documents describing vehicle specifications, budget and schedule. The board confirmed SLS is ready to move from concept development to preliminary design.

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Despite NASA paying Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne $1.2 billion to develop the J-2X upper stage for the new Space Launch System, the space agency will use modified Delta IV stages on the first two flights of the new heavy-lift booster.

The price tag? A cool $175 million. The beneficiary? Boeing. And, curiously enough, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.

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Phoenix satellite concept. (Credit: DARPA)

PALO ALTO, CA, Jul 25, 2012 (SS/L PR) — Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), the world’s leading provider of commercial satellites, today announced that it was selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to determine how small satellites can be carried to geostationary orbit (GEO) as hosted payloads on commercial satellites. SS/L was awarded a contract to analyze and define key aspects of DARPA’s Phoenix program, which is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies to cooperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, nonworking satellites in GEO.

In order to re-purpose these valuable components, such as antennas, the Phoenix program plan is to attach small satellites, called ‘satlets,’ that will take control of the old components and give them new operational life. SS/L will study how to carry these satlets to orbit by giving them a ride on large commercial GEO satellites.

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Menlo Park, CA, July 25, 2012 (Team Phoenicia PR) — Team Phoenicia announced today they have teamed up with Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems LLC and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) to work on lunar and interplanetary small satellite and CubeSat launch opportunities. This teaming arrangement covers collaboration on the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE; collaboration on future interplanetary and lunar nanosat launches; and tapping into each other’s knowledge bases for both the competition flights and beyond.

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By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

David Willetts, who as Minister of State for Universities and Science oversees the UK Space Agency, outlined his nation’s strategy for capturing part of the emerging commercial space plane market during a speech at the Farnsborough International Airshow. He sees an opportunity for the UK and Europe to seize the advantage in a potentially lucrative area now led by American-based companies.

Space-related technologies are advancing at a substantial pace – nowhere more so, arguably, than in launch systems. This is an area where the likes of Virgin Galactic and potentially the Skylon space plane being developed by Reaction Engines’s could be game changers. The US, it appears, is sticking with SpaceX’s traditional launcher model, while our Russian colleagues here continue to provide a valuable service through Soyuz. This presents an opportunity for us to seize the advantage in terms of both technology and regulation. Space tourism and commercial space are just beyond the horizon.

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