Editor’s Perspective: Florida officials are attempting to diversify the Space Coast’s economy away from reliance upon NASA. One promising area is the booming field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s), which employs people with very similar skill sets as the space industry.

Kennedy Space Center, FL, July 9, 2012 (Space Florida PR) – Space Florida – the State of Florida’s spaceport authority and aerospace economic development agency – has selected ENSCO, Inc. – an engineering, science and advanced technology solutions company for the defense, security, transportation and aerospace industries – to play a leading role in its Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Initiative.

(more…)

LauncherOne. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)

Summary

• WhiteKnightTwo launched rocket will delivery 500 pounds (225 kg.) to LEO for less than $10 million by 2016
• Customers include Spaceflight Services, Planetary Resources, Skybox Imaging, and GeoOptics Inc.
• Surrey  Satellite Technology and Sierra Nevada Corporation to create spacecraft optimized for LauncherOne
• SpaceShipTwo to begin powered flights by end of this year
• Virgin has deposits from 529 clients for suborbital spaceflights

FARNBOROUGH, UNITED KINGDOM (VG PR) – Today during the Farnborough International Air Show 2012, Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, announced “LauncherOne,” a new air-launched rocket specifically designed to deliver small satellites into orbit. With substantial funding already raised from Virgin Galactic’s partner aabar Investments PJS, and with commercial flights of this new orbital launch vehicle expected to begin by 2016, Virgin Galactic aims to offer frequent and dedicated launches at the world’s lowest prices. Virgin Galactic also announced that four private companies have already put down deposits as future LauncherOne customers, expressing their intent to purchase a total of several dozen launches, which would exceed the level of early commitment of any previous new launch vehicle.

(more…)

Farnborough (United Kingdom), July 9, 2012 (AIAC PR) – The Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) today released performance results for Canada’s aerospace industry in 2011:

• Industry revenue reached $22.4 billion, representing a 6.7% increase from 2010.
• Aircraft, aircraft parts and components remained the largest revenue segment, totalling $11 billion and 49% of overall revenues.
• 87,200 workers were directly employed by the aerospace industry, representing a 7.6% increase from 2010. More than 19,000 of these employees are engineers and scientific staff. (more…)

Brevard County, Fla., July 10, 2012 (EDC PR) – The Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, Enterprise Florida, City of Titusville, Space Florida, and Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority are pleased to announce that Rocket Crafters, a Utah-based corporation that holds licenses for advanced hybrid rocket and aerospace composite technologies as well as proprietary hybrid rocket design and analysis software, will relocate to Titusville.

The company plans to develop and commercialize a new hybrid rocket propulsion technology and leverage an ultra-lightweight, advanced composite material to manufacture dual-propulsion suborbital space planes. Rocket Crafters is focused on spaceflight training and commercializing the enabling technologies required for the future suborbital new space opportunities for both commercial and military applications.

Rocket Crafters will invest $72 million to support operations at the Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. At full employment, the company’s total economic impact is estimated to be over $48 million.
(more…)

RED-Data is a basketball ball sized device designed to record a re-entry event. (Credit: TVA)

ATLANTA, GA, July 10, 2012 (TVA PR) – Terminal Velocity Aerospace, LLC (TVA) announced operation today as a new venture dedicated to improving reentry safety and furthering the utilization of outer space. TVA offers small protective devices for data collection during reentry breakup events, and for safe return of small payloads from space.

TVA was co-founded by Dr. Robert Braun, Director of the Georgia Tech Space Systems Design Laboratory, and Dr. John Olds, CEO of SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. [Editor’s Note: Braun served as NASA’s Chief Technologist in 2010-11.]

(more…)

ABINGDON, ENGLAND, July 10, 2012 (RE PR) — Reaction Engines Ltd., a UK based company, has successfully completed another series of tests of the key component for a new engine, SABRE, that will enable aircraft to fly anywhere on Earth in under 4 hours, or directly into space and back to deliver satellites and other cargo.

The SABRE engine is capable of operating as a jet engine and a rocket engine, powering aircraft at up to five times the speed of sound within the atmosphere or directly into Earth orbit at twenty-five times the speed of sound. Its ground-breaking technology – an air pre-cooler – is designed to cool continuously the incoming airstream from over 1,0000C to minus 1500C in less than 1/100th of a second (six times faster than the blink of an eye), effectively doubling the current technical limits of jet engine speeds.

(more…)

Phoenix satellite concept. (Credit: DARPA)

Los Alamitos CA (NovaWurks PR) — The DARPA Tactical Technology Office (TTO) has announced that NovaWurks, Inc. has been awarded a portion of the Phoenix Technologies contract to develop and demonstrate technologies to copperatively harvest and re-use valuable components from retired, non-operating satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO). The project will also demonstrate the ability to create new space systems at greatly reduced costs.

The $2.8M contract is the first of many such projects that NovaWurks will receive in this the companies first year of operation.

(more…)

AMSTERDAM, July 9, 2012 (SXC PR) — Space Expedition Corporation and former Goldman Sachs trader Anton Kreil, have just announced they will be attempting to set a new World Record by executing the “First Trade in Space” aboard the XCOR Lynx MK II shuttle in 2014.

Dutch Space Tourism company, Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) and world renowned financial markets trader Anton Kreil are about to make a giant financial leap and go one step beyond. In an interview with the London based publication Square Mile magazine, Kreil has announced that he will be attempting to become the first person in history to make a financial markets transaction in Space, when he hops aboard the XCOR Lynx MKII shuttle with SXC in 2014.

(more…)

This week on The Space Show…. 1. Monday, July 9, 2012, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): COL. CAROL WELSCH, USAF, is our guest. Col. Welsch is Acting Director, Space Development and Test Directorate, Kirtland AFB. The Space Development and Test Directorate’s mission is to deliver small, responsive space capabilities to users across the National Security Space community. The Directorate consists of a combined team of 1,000+ […]

NanoRacks reports on some problems with students experiments it launched to ISS aboard Dragon: Recently the hardware that was launched on SpaceX returned safely on Soyuz. As the schools receive the MixStix and begin to analyze the results, we are learning that many of the projects were not activated while on the International Space Station. Our CTO Michael Johnson has pulled together a team that will coordinate with NASA to […]