Credit: NASA

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (NASA PR) — A large inflatable heat shield developed by NASA’s Space Technology Program has successfully survived a trip through Earth’s atmosphere while travelling at hypersonic speeds up to 7,600 mph.

The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) was launched by sounding rocket at 7:01 a.m. Monday from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. The purpose of the IRVE-3 test was to show that a space capsule can use an inflatable outer shell to slow and protect itself as it enters an atmosphere at hypersonic speed during planetary entry and descent, or as it returns to Earth with cargo from the International Space Station.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 23, 2012 (GenCorp PR) — GenCorp Inc. (GY), headquartered in Sacramento, California, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) from United Technologies Corporation (UTX) for $550 million.

“We see great strategic value in this transaction for the country, our customers, partner supply base and our shareholders,” GenCorp Chief Executive Officer Scott Seymour said. “The combined enterprise will be better positioned to compete in a dynamic, highly competitive marketplace, and provide more affordable products for our customers.”

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NASA has rescheduled the third Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) for Monday. The experimental heat shield will be lofted by a suborbital rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia. The test is part of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) project, which is being conducted under NASA’s Game Changing Technologies program. In addition to allowing NASA to send larger vehicles to other worlds, the technology could be used to return payloads from […]

Here’s a closer look at Rocket Crafters, the Utah company that recently announced that it would be moving its operations to Titusville, Florida. This is based upon the company’s website and a PowerPoint presentation about the company’s move to the Sunshine State.

Founded

November 2010

Divisions

• Defense
• Spacecraft

Goals

• To develop and commercialize a family of synergistic and interrelated aerospace products for the commercial space and military rocket and guided missile markets
• To develop the enabling technologies to make it possible to safely and reliably transport passengers and urgent priority cargo on suborbital tracks over intercontinental distances in 1/6th the time of current commercial aviation services

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LONDON (UKSA PR) — The UK Space Agency last week revealed the figures from its latest report on the ‘Size and Health of the UK Space Sector’. The Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, announced at the Farnborough International Airshow that the total contribution of the space sector to the UK economy was £9.1B for 2010/2011. With an average annual growth rate of 7.5%, the continued contribution of space to the economy is a remarkable success in the current conditions.

Government and industry representatives have met today in the Space Zone of the UK’s flagship aerospace trade show to discuss the ongoing growth of the sector in the face of economic constraints.

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By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

There have been stories floating around Mojave for some time that there is a liquid-fuel rocket being developed for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in parallel with the troubled hybrid RocketMotorTwo program. And, what do you know? The stories are true, according to Aviation Week:

LauncherOne will be powered by a two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket, now in initial development by Virgin Galactic. The same rocket also is intended to ultimately replace the non-reusable RM2 hybrid motor that will power the SS2 to suborbit, Virgin says….

Initial LauncherOne flights are due to start in 2015, with commercial flights getting under way by 2016…

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Seattle, WA,  19 July 2012 (Spaceflight PR) —  Spaceflight Inc. (Spaceflight) announced today that it has signed an agreement with Virgin Galactic for dedicated flights on the LauncherOne vehicle recently revealed at the Farnborough Air Show.

Spaceflight Inc. was established to revolutionize secondary payload flight services for fixed and deployable cargo and transport.  Under the agreement with Virgin Galactic, Spaceflight will integrate and launch small spacecraft using the LauncherOne vehicle. Previously, secondary payloads have been limited to orbit insertion dictated by the primary payload, now secondary payloads can go to an orbit optimized for their specific mission.

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Vladimir Putin inside of a full-size mockup of Russia’s six-passenger “Rus” spacecraft. (Credit: RSC Energia)

Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin says that Russia’s new six-person Soyuz replacement will not fly until 2018, a delay from the previous 2015-16 time frame:

“We are thinking of higher [compared to the International Space Station] orbits, and flights to the moon, and developing the technology to fly to Mars,” he said. “So we are developing a future system, first of all of course the pressurized, launchable module,” he said.

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The latest update from Orbital Sciences Corporation shows the first Antares test flight slipping from September to October. Updated COTS and CRS Schedules July 2012 Orbital updated its COTS and CRS operational schedules, with plans to achieve four major operational milestones within the next year. They are as listed below: Late August/Early September 2012 – Antares First-Stage Static Fire Test at Wallops October 2012 – Antares Test Flight for COTS […]