WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has issued a NASA Research Announcement for the Space Launch System (SLS) Advanced Booster risk-reduction effort.

NASA is looking for an advanced booster concept with the goal of reducing risk in the areas of affordability, reliability and performance. Proposals will identify and mitigate liquid or solid booster technical risks and provide related hardware demonstrations, as well as identify high-risk areas associated with adaptation of advanced booster technology to SLS.

The 130-metric-ton evolved SLS vehicle will require a booster with a significant increase in thrust over existing U.S. liquid or solid boosters. This new heavy-lift launch vehicle will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration across the solar system.

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Inaugural Vega flight. (Credits: ESA - S. Corvaja, 2012)

Despite committing almost $1.5 billion to developing and flight testing its newest launch vehicle, Vega, Europe will spend even more money to upgrade the rocket.

European officials are eying the developing of a new German fourth stage to replace a Ukrainian-built RD-868 engine that was used on Vega’s successful inaugural flight on Monday. It’s not clear how much the new engine would cost.

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Video Caption: Using the GENIE (Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment) System, Draper Laboratory raised Masten Space Systems’ Xombie suborbital rocket 50 meters to a stable hover, sent it laterally down range 50 meters, and then had it land safely during a controlled 50 meter descent. The testing, which exercised the autonomous guidance, navigation, and control technology needed to fly planetary landing trajectories, was conducted at the Mojave Air and Space […]

DARPA is seeking FY 2013 funds to continue work on hypersonic vehicles, Aviation Week reports: New starts planned for 2013 include the Collaborative Hypersonic Research (CHR) program to demonstrate a boost-glide vehicle as a precursor to a tactical long-range strike weapon capable of launch on a 21-in. or larger booster. Darpa is seeking $11 million in 2013 to start the “flight experiment-intensive” CHR program, which is intended to build on […]

There’s some potentially good news for the hard-hit Space Coast.

A “rocket propulsion systems” company is considering locating its facilities in Titusville, a move that would create more than 2,200 direct and spin-off jobs, according to Florida Today.

The identity of the company is being kept secret, with it being referred to as “Project Speed” in city and county documents. Titusville, Brevard C0unty and Space Florida are working to put together a package of tax incentives for the company, which is also considering three other sites outside of Florida. (more…)

Washington, Feb 14 – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) issued the following statement criticizing The White House’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request for NASA:

“The administration’s FY’13 budget includes almost $1.9 billion for continued pursuit of the SLS Titanic, a ‘monster rocket’ based on 40-year-old Space Shuttle technology in an attempt to recapture the glory days of the Apollo Saturn V,” said Rohrabacher. “By NASA’s internal estimates, the SLS and other components won’t be ready to launch astronauts to an asteroid until 2028, after we have spent over $130 billion towards the mission. By those same estimates, NASA has shown how they can accomplish the exact same mission with our existing fleet of launch vehicles four years earlier and at less than half that cost.
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The Institute of Technical Physics at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) develops and builds lasers. In the future, lasers will be capable of detecting items of space debris and accelerating the decay of their orbits. Credit: DLR (CC-BY 3.0).

DLR and the Laser Station in Graz provide Europe’s first ever demonstration of laser location

DLR PR — Every year, the number of small items of debris in space rises by tens of thousands. This number is currently based on estimates, as it has not been possible to track space debris accurately. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) are developing an optical observation system with a powerful laser, the pulses from which can detect particles only a few centimetres in diameter and allow determination of their orbits. The concept was tested for the first time in January 2012, in collaboration with the Laser Station in the Austrian city of Graz. This is the first time that the orbits of spent launcher components have been measured using a laser in Europe. In the future, an even more powerful laser will be capable of deflecting these particles out of their orbits, causing them to incinerate as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.

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Video Caption: Known as the Rocket Whisperer, Doug Jones will be guiding the Salon’s quest to gain insight into the current state of advanced space technology and the future of things to come. Doug will speculate on the viability of using possible technological advancements such as space tethers, beamed power, gun launches, and electromagnetic sails as a means to realize humanity’s continued reach into the cosmos. Doug is a Co-Founder […]

Investor Julian Ranger talks about his investment in Astrobotic Technology, on the competitors in the Google Lunar X Prize. Some interesting numbers: Cost of Mission: $100 million Projected Revenues: $170 million Projected Profit: $70 million. The takeaway is that Astrobotic could make a profit from this mission without the Google Lunar X Prize funding. This means they could walk away if they don’t like the media and IP rights in […]

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 33 small satellites to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2013 and 2014. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, NASA field centers and Department of Defense organizations.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are approximately four inches long, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than three pounds.

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