The Mojave Chamber of Commerce has scheduled two events over the next week as part of its efforts to revitalize the town. Mojave Clean Up Day Saturday, June 9 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Meeting Location: Stoken Donuts on Belshaw Street Volunteers are needed for cleaning up trash in alleys and vacant lots. Please wear work clothes and closed-toe shoes and bring rakes and shovels. Organizers will provide trash bags, […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
LAS CRUCES, NM (VG PR) — Virgin Galactic opened a new office in Las Cruces, N.M., that will complement the commercial spaceline’s growing operations team at Spaceport America and enhance the local economy through jobs, local tourism and hospitality spending.
June 7th, 2012, Mojave CA, USA and New York City, NY (XCOR/SXC PR): With the Tom Sachs space-themed art exhibit, “Space Program: Mars“ as a backdrop, XCOR Aerospace named Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) as the new General Sales Agent (GSA) for the XCOR owned Lynx Suborbital vehicle flying from the Mojave Air and Spaceport.
SXC was previously announced as the first wet lease customer for a Lynx production vehicle with planned flights from Curacao. The GSA places the responsibility with SXC for ticket sales through the extensive network of XCOR Space Tourism Specialists and for astronaut training and relations for XCOR Lynx flights from Mojave. Currently, the combined sales of Lynx fights between XCOR and SXC are over 175 flights, with a published retail price of $95,000.
Dragon on the end of the space station's Canadarm2. (Credit: NASA)
SpaceX’s successful Dragon flight to the International Space Station did more than open the door for commercial cargo delivery, it also doubled the company’s valuation, according to PrivCo:
Furthermore, SpaceX’s last valuation on secondary markets of $10/share or $1.2 billion is dated to April 2012 before its historic mission. PrivCo estimates that given the mission’s success, new contracts the company stands to gain, and its rapid growth, SpaceX’s share price has now doubled in value to a PrivCo-estimated $20/share with a valuation of $2.4 billion. In an additional valuation data point, PrivCo confirms a recent $18.50/share ask price from secondary markets, up 85% from its last trade in April.
By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor
There has been renewed activity out here in Mojave on the SpaceShipTwo program as Scaled Composites gears up for a busy summer of flight testing. Scaled Composites conducted a taxi test on SpaceShipTwo on June 1 (see summary below), with the space plane spend three hours out on the runway. Three different pilots were at the controls as they tested new higher capacity brakes.
WhiteKnightTwo was also flying solo over Mojave on Sunday. That is believed to be the 81st flight of SpaceShipTwo’s carrier aircraft. Scaled has not posted a test flight summary on its website yet.
The Defense Department’s annual report to Congress, “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2012,” includes an interesting section on that nation’s rapidly growing space program. The report finds progress across a broad range of areas from human spaceflight to global positioning systems and capabilities for disable foreign military satellites. It also cautions that the Chinese are facing issues with reliability due to a surging launch rate.
The relevant section is reproduced below.
Louisville, Colo. – June 6, 2012 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces the successful completion of its Dream Chaser®Space System’s (DCSS) Preliminary Design Review (PDR). This review was the third major system-level review for the DCSS as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) Program.
NC’s PDR included a detailed review of all major elements of its orbital flight program including the Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle, the Atlas V launch vehicle, and Dream Chaser Mission and Ground Systems. The entire design, architecture and performance of the Dream Chaser Space System was reviewed and thoroughly evaluated by NASA and the DCSS partner companies and determined that the SNC preliminary design for DCSS is complete.
Key Congressional leaders are praising the deal reached between NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) that will allow the space agency to select multiple commercial crew providers using Space Act Agreements later this year.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Washington, Jun 5 – Today, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) issued the following statement on the agreement reached between Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee and NASA on the future of the commercial crew program:
“I am pleased that CJS Appropriations Chairman Frank Wolf and NASA Administrator Bolden were able to come to an agreement ensuring that the Commercial Crew Program will move forward quickly while preserving competition in the program. This leadership will help bring about safe, reliable, domestic access to space for our astronauts on commercial vehicles, saving money, creating jobs in America, and leveraging our greatest strengths to maintain our international leadership in space.”
Rep. Rohrabacher is a senior member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Legislation that would limit the liability of spacecraft operators if they injure or kill passengers during flights has passed the California House of Representatives 73-0 and is now up for consideration in the State Senate. The measure had its first reading in the Senate and has been referred to the Standing Committee on Judiciary for review.
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Steve Knight of California’s 36th district and promoted by Mojave Air and Space Port CEO Stu Witt, would require that passengers sign an informed consent agreement acknowledging that spaceflight is dangerous before flying.