XCOR investor Lee Valentine points out features of the Lynx. (Credit: Douglas Messier)

by Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

XCOR’s advanced rocket engines will allow for daily flights into suborbital and then orbital space during this decade, investor Lee Valentine said on Saturday.

Valentine gave a fascinating talk during the Mojave Air and Space Port’s monthly Plane Crazy Saturday open house in which he laid out in detail how the company plans to make human access to space routine, cheap and safe.

“XCOR has got an engine, the prototype for the Lynx engine, that has got more than 550 flight equivalents on it,” Valentine said. “We have not identified any wear mechanism, and the senior engineering team thinks that that engine is going to be good for many thousands of flights. Indeed, with all of the engines that XCOR has ever built, we have never worn one out or identified the wear mechanism.”

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This just in from Sir Richard Branson… Great news today news from our Astronaut Relations team at Virgin Galactic: our 500th future astronaut customer has just signed up! Even better news is that number 500 is Ashton Kutcher. I gave Ashton a quick call to congratulate and welcome him. He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and […]

The CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” aired this segment on Elon Musk and SpaceX last night.

This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. 1. Monday, March 19, 2011 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome DUANE HYLAND to the show. Duane is a debate coach and will discuss pointers on how to put forth a convincing argument. It is important to be able to do this as we take the space message outside the space community. 2. Tuesday, March 20, […]

Pasadena, CA (Ecliptic PR) – Six rugged RocketCam™ color video cameras captured close-up views of the first phase of NASA’s teleoperated Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) demonstration, conducted March 7-9 on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS).

The RRM demo involves a complex, washing machine-sized experiment package conceived, designed, built and integrated by the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland (https://ssco.gsfc.nasa.gov), leveraging the group’s decades of expertise leading Hubble servicing mission activities. The RRM module was launched to ISS onboard the final Shuttle mission in July, 2011 and transferred to the ISS exterior by spacewalking astronauts.

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ENERGOMASH PR: On March 7, 2012, it was decided to allocate IC “Skolkovo” the first grant for the development of new highly combustible “Acetyl”. This project is implemented within the framework of the Energomash Centre of Innovation.

The “acetyl” is aimed at significantly improving the energy characteristics of Russian and foreign launch vehicles. Thermophysical properties and performance allow a number of advantages compared to the hydrogen-oxygen boosters that were considered until recently to limit energy capabilities of rocket engines to chemical energy:

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Longueuil, Quebec (CSA PR) – Dextre, the Canadian Space Agency’s robotic handyman on board the International Space Station (ISS), has accomplished the most intricate work ever performed by a robot in space. Over three days (March 7-9), Dextre successfully concluded the initial phases of the Robotic Refueling Mission with unprecedented precision. A collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, the Robotic Refueling Mission was designed to demonstrate the ability of using robots to refuel and service existing satellites in space—especially those not designed for repair. The mission also marks the first time Dextre was used for a technology research and development demonstration on board the Station.

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will appear in a segment of the CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening. Watch Scott Pelley’s report on Sunday, March 18 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Statement by AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey

The Aerospace Industries Association strongly supports the bipartisan amendment offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and co-sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), which reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank through September 30, 2015, and increases the cap on its lending authority.  Without the passage of this amendment the bank runs the risk of losing its important ability to help American companies export.

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Video Caption: Fully resuable spacecraft are the critical enabler for regular, low cost and safe access to space, and such access will enable space utilization in ways we’ve only dreamed about in the past. Much as the early ARPANET laid the foundation for a multi-trillion dollar enterprise revolving around the internet, early reusable spacecraft like the Lynx suborbital vehicle will establish the beginnings of a multi-trillion enterprise revolving around the […]