Washington, D.C., Monday, March 12, 2012 (CSF PR) – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce that former NASA astronaut, International Space Station (ISS) commander, Naval Aviator, and test pilot Michael E. Lopez-Alegria (Capt., U.S. Navy, Ret.) has been named as President, effective March 19, 2012.

Lopez-Alegria was selected for the position following a vote of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF).

As President, Lopez-Alegria will lead the Federation staff, and work with the 40+ members of the Federation, which include providers of commercial orbital and suborbital spaceflight, spaceports and launch facilities, suppliers, and educational and research institutions. Lopez-Alegria succeeds Rear Admiral Craig Steidle.

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

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

The revamped Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority will receive $7.5 million annually in transportation funding under a measure approved by the Legislature. The funding will be used to develop the growing Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island.

Legislators also approved other changes designed to give the Authority a stronger focus, including a smaller board of directors and the creation of a strategic plan.

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Mojave's runways. (Credit: Mojave Air and Space Port)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

The Mojave Air and Space Port is getting close to hiring a director of economic development and aerospace growth and is looking to make other enhancements to improve the experience of tenants at the desert facility and keep Mojave at the cutting edge of aerospace development.

Last Tuesday, General Manager and CEO Stu Witt told the East Kern Airport District Board of Directors that he has interviewed three of four finalists for the economic development position. The new hire will work to promote the airport, develop new business, and provide value-added services for tenants.

Witt said he was very impressed with candidates, saying they all had high quality, depth of experience, and great ideas for how to perform the job. He expects to have a recommendation for the board in April.

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ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (Credit: STAR, Inc.)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

NASA has awarded a $1.9 million contract to a South Carolina company for the development of the ElectroDynamic Debris Eliminator (EDDE) vehicle, which is designed to clean up the growing debris problem in low Earth orbit.

Star Technology and Research (STAR) was awarded the contract under NASA’s Game Changing Technology program. STAR President Jerome Pearson is the project’s principal investigator.

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By Douglas Messier Parabolic Arc Managing Editor Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin landed in the hospital this weekend, although the exact reason is unclear. Russian news agency quoted the space agency’s press office as saying the 54-year-old general was suffering from “physical and emotional exhaustion.” A spokesman later confirmed the hospitalization to the Associated Press without elaboration. A Russian tabloid, Life News, posted a picture of Popovkin with his head bandaged […]

By José Monserrat Filho
Head of International Cooperation Cooperation
Brazilian Space Agency (AEB)

On Thursday, March 15, a high-level delegation of Argentina will visit the Alcantara Launch Center (CLA) in Maranhao, considered one of the most privileged of the world space launch insurance, economic and competitive.

The tour meets at the invitation, in 2011, then President of the Brazilian Space Agency, Marco Antonio Raupp, now Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry on cooperation between the two countries for the peaceful uses of outer space.

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Frank Pelkey, a United Space Alliance technician at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, works with a heat shield tile that will be installed to the backshell of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle's Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) capsule. Photo credit: NASA/Frankie Martin

by  Steven Siceloff
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center

Workers recently began cutting and coating the first thermal protection system tiles – part of the heat shield that will protect an Orion spacecraft during an upcoming flight test which will simulate the re-entry speed and heating of returning from deep space.

The tiles are made of the same material and coating as those used on the space shuttle’s belly. On Orion, however, the tiles will be placed along the sides and top of the conical spacecraft. A separate heat shield akin to the ablative design used during Apollo is being developed to protect the bottom of the spacecraft, which will encounter the highest temperatures.

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Masten Space Systems' Xombie rocket with Draper Laboratory's GENIE flight control system rests on its launch pad at the Mojave Air and Space Port. (Credit: Draper Lab)

MOJAVE, Calif. (NASA PR) — The first successful free flight of a new rocket-powered vertical landing demonstrator occurred recently at Mojave Air and Space Port, Mojave, Calif. The flight used a new flight control system concept that will enable future demonstrations of landing technologies needed for exploration of planets and moons, as well as near-Earth objects, like asteroids. NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program sponsored the flight and control system test.

Masten Space Systems’ Xombie suborbital rocket lifted off the launch pad Feb. 2 while being controlled by Draper Laboratory’s Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) system. The rocket rose 164 feet, moved laterally 164 feet, and then landed on another pad after a 67-second flight. The flight represents the first step in developing a test bed capability that will allow for landing demonstrations that start at much higher altitudes-several miles above the ground.

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On March 6 the Federal Space Agency held a board meeting under the direction of the head of Russian Space Agency, V.A. Popovkin.

Agenda of the meeting included the questions:

1. The results of space activities in 2011, the task of the Federal Space Agency in 2012.
2. Consideration of the materials of the project “Development Strategy of the Russian space industry for the period up to 2030”

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, the representatives of the Russian Presidential Administration and the Russian Government, ministries and agencies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a number of universities, heads of enterprises of the Russian space industry.

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UKRAINE SPACE AGENCY PR — At a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers February 15, 2012 approved the Concept of national targeted scientific and technical space program for 2013-2017 (hereinafter – the Program).

The concept defined the problem to be solved by directed program, an analysis of its causes, is the objective of the Programme on the basis of comparative analysis, the optimal solution of the problem and solve it, given the expected results of the program, as well as approximate the necessary financial resources.

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