Crew seats inside the Dragon. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

HAWTHORNE, Calif., July 12, 2012 (SpaceX PR) — NASA partner Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has completed an important design review of the crewed version of its Dragon spacecraft. The concept baseline review presented NASA with the primary and secondary design elements of its Dragon capsule designed to carry astronauts into low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.

SpaceX is one of several companies working to develop crew transportation capabilities under the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Through CCDev2, NASA is helping the private sector develop and test new spacecraft and rockets with the goal of making commercial human spaceflight services available to commercial and government customers.

(more…)

Pad OA at Wallops Island. (Credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation)

Some good news for Orbital Sciences Corporation on getting its new Antares rocket off the ground via Space News:

The outgoing head of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority said the group is on track to hand off a launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) in Wallops Island, Va., to Orbital Sciences Corp. this month.

Handing the pad over to Orbital would finally enable the Dulles, Va.-based rocket and satellite builder to begin flight demonstrations of its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo module, the vehicles Orbital will use to fulfill a $1.9 billion NASA contract to fly cargo to the international space station.

(more…)

Video Caption: Virgin Galactic is proud to announce LauncherOne, a revolutionary new launch vehicle dedicated to enabling dramatically more people and users to benefit from space.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 9, 2012 (Aerojet PR) – Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, announced today that it has entered the final planning of the formation of a European subsidiary to serve the needs of the European space industry. The new company, European Space Propulsion, will use indigenous manufacturing and engineering talent to produce proven in-space thrusters and propulsion systems.

(more…)

LOUISVILLE, Colo., July 11, 2012 (NASA PR) — NASA partner Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has completed a successful test of the nose landing gear for its full-scale Dream Chaser engineering flight test vehicle. The completed test and an upcoming flight test are part of SNC’s Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

The gear test is an important milestone to prepare for the upcoming approach and landing test of the Dream Chaser Space System later this year. It evaluated the impact the nose landing gear will experience on touchdown in order to ensure a safe runway landing.
(more…)

Video Caption: Gov. Rick Perry joined XCOR Aerospace and the Midland Development Corp. to announce the creation of XCOR’s new Commercial Space Research and Development Center headquarters at the Midland International Airport. XCOR develops and produces reusable launch vehicles, rocket engines and rocket propulsion systems, and will create 100 jobs at this new facility.

LauncherOne. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)

Englewood, Colo., July 11, 2012 (SST-US PR) — Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC (SST-US) has today signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Virgin Galactic optimizing Surrey’s innovative satellites for Virgin’s new launch vehicle, radically lowering the cost of building and launching small satellites.

This MOU comes on the heels of Virgin Galactic’s announcement of its new ”LauncherOne” program, an unmanned rocket that will be air-launched by SpaceShipTwo’s carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, and that will be capable of delivering as much as 225 kg to low Earth Orbit. SST-US and Virgin Galactic have agreed to work together to provide SST-US, the world leader in small satellite manufacturing, the information needed to build the most powerful spacecraft that LauncherOne can support, giving satellite customers a powerful and affordable option to put their payloads into space.
(more…)

Bellevue, Wash., July 11, 2012 (Planetary Resources PR) –- Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, announced today an agreement with Virgin Galactic, LLC that will enable multiple launch opportunities for its series of spacecraft, including the Arkyd-100 low-Earth orbit (LEO) space telescopes.

(more…)

Video Caption: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo made its Farnborough air show debut. Aviation Week talks to George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s president, about the program.