HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA completed another successful test Wednesday of the Orion crew vehicle’s parachutes high above the Arizona desert in preparation for the spacecraft’s orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing.
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
NASA PR — NASA engineers conducted a 550-second test of the new J-2X rocket engine at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on July 13. The J-2X engine will power the upper-stage of a planned two-stage Space Launch System, or SLS. The SLS will launch NASA’s Orion spacecraft and other payloads, and provide an entirely new capability for human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Designed to be safe, affordable and flexible […]
The latest SpaceX video recounts Dragon’s flight from take-off to splashdown.
My friend Bill Deaver sent me this picture from a successful glide flight that SpaceSpaceTwo took this morning in Mojave. It was the 19th glide flight of the program.
AUSTIN, TX, JULY 18, 2012 (TXA PR) – The Texas Space Alliance (TXA) and the office of the Speaker of the House are pleased to announce the meeting in Austin between Governor Rick Perry and numerous representatives of the nation’s top new commercial space firms. The TXA team brought together representatives from SpaceX, XCOR Aerospace, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), Armadillo Aerospace, NanoRacks, Celestis, and ATK Liberty to talk about the needs of Commercial Space, and what Texas can do to fully embrace and nurture this vital, fledgling new industry.
Phoenix satellite concept. (Credit: DARPA)
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
Jonathan Goff’s Altius Space Machines is among five companies and a NASA field center sharing about $36 million in contract awards in DARPA’s Phoenix Technologies program, which aims to harvest components from dead satellites for reuse.
Space News reports that Goff’s Louisville, Colo., company will build an extendable boom for the Phoenix spacecraft. DARPA would not reveal how much Altius will receive under the contract.
Other winners of Phoenix contracts include: Space Systems/Loral; Intelsat; MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates; NovaWurks; and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
I received this notice from the Revitalize Mojave group: Calling all Mojave residents and those interested in the future of Mojave!! This Thursday, the Mojave Revitalization program will be holding a meeting for the entire community. If you are interested finding out more about the direction this program is going, please join us at the Veteran’s Building at 5:30pm – all are welcome to attend! Mojave Community Meeting – Bring […]
NASA PR — CPAS just completed the EDU-A-CDT-3-5 (PTV-2) airdrop test. All visuals indicate a nominal parachute test. Recovery operations at the DZ will begin shortly to return the test hardware to the hanger in Yuma which will complete the day’s activities.
OXFORDSHIRE, England (ISIC PR) — The International Space Innovation Centre (ISIC) is delighted to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Skolkovo Foundation, a non-profit organisation that focuses on the development of new technologies and a commercialisation centre based in Russia.
The MoU was signed at the Farnborough Airshow on Tuesday 10 July in the Space Pavilion, between Barbara Ghinelli – ISIC’s Executive Chair and Sergey Zhukov – Executive Director of the Skolkovo Foundation, in front of a large international audience including the Right Honourable David Willetts MP – Minister for Universities and Science, Jean-Jacque Dordain – Director General of the European Space Agency, and Vladimir Popovkin – Head of ROSCOSMOS, the Russian Space Agency.
Video Caption: An exclusive insight behind the scenes of some of the key Virgin Galactic Team. Editor’s Note: This was released during the Farnsborough International Airshow last week.