NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
One More Step on the Commercial Path to Low Earth Orbit
by Charles Bolden
NASA Administrator
The past couple of years have seen NASA and its industry partners make tremendous progress on the commercial capability for delivering cargo and transporting crew to low Earth orbit (LEO). It’s a path that will stop the out-sourcing of our missions to the space station and bring that work back home here to America by relying on U.S. companies to get the job done.
Our initial investments with the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program had two participants — SpaceX and Orbital Sciences — and our investments are paying off. From SpaceX’s launch, orbit, and successful recovery of a Dragon capsule in December 2010 to this year’s planned berthing of capsules at the International Space Station (ISS) by both SpaceX and Orbital, the milestones have been nothing short of historic.
ESA PR — Join us online for the first qualification flight of the Vega launch vehicle on Monday 13 February, with a launch window open from 11:00 to 14:00 CET (10:00 to 13:00 GMT/5:00 to 8:00 a.m. EST). Vega will lift off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to release nine satellites into orbit and add a new capability to Europe’s fleet of launch systems. Live transmission starts at 10:40 CET (9:40 GMT/4:40 a.m. EST).
Ariane 5
An improved Ariane 5 with greater lifting capacity, or a brand new vehicle built from the ground up?
That’s the question facing ESA this year. The space agency’s two largest contributing nations, Germany and France, are on opposites sides of the issue. So, they have agreed to form two working groups to resolve their differences ahead of ESA’s ministerial meeting in November, Space News reports.
Taken from "Competing for Space: Satellite Export Policy and U.S. National Security," published by Aerospace Industries Association, January 2012
The United States’ restrictive export laws have devastated the nation’s satellite manufacturing industry, resulting in a loss of $20.8 billion in revenues and nearly 28,000 jobs annually over a 10-year period, according to a new report published by the Aerospace Industries Association. The U.S. share of world satellite manufacturing revenue has dropped from 63 percent to about 30 percent.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA is seeking proposals for small technology payloads that could fly on future NASA-sponsored suborbital flights. These future flights will travel to the edge of space and back, testing the innovative new technologies before they’re sent to work in the harsh environment of space.
“NASA’s Game Changing Development Program focuses on maturing advanced space technologies that may lead to entirely new approaches for the agency’s future space missions while providing solutions to significant national needs and adding to our nation’s innovation economy,” said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA’s Space Technology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This solicitation offers an opportunity to develop potentially transformative technologies that take advantage of our Flight Opportunities Program platforms, which allow frequent and predictable commercial access to near-space, with easy recovery of intact payloads.”
Video Caption: After rigorous adherence to Masten’s “modify, test, modify” philosophy, Xaero has finally been unleashed from the safety tether, and performed a successful free flight hover this week. Improvements to our control algorithms were validated under tether earlier in the week, followed by careful analysis of Xaero’s flight performance. The result is a picture perfect 22 second hover flight.
Washington D.C. February 10, 2012 (CSF PR): As the commercial spaceflight industry prepares for its first commercial launches, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is announcing the creation of a new coalition to bring suborbital spaceflight to students, teachers, researchers, and companies across the country. This week’s passage of legislation to ensure a stable regulatory climate for commercial spaceflight was the starting gun, and regular commercial service is expected within two years.
Frank Morring, Jr. of Aviation Week has an overview of NASA’s budget request for FY 2013, which is due for official release on Monday. A brief summary: $17.711 billion overall (down $89 million) $3 billion for ISS $2.8 billion for Space Launch System and Orion MPCV ($1.8 billion SLS/$1 billion Orion MPCV) $830 million for commercial crew $699 for space technology $500 million for aeronautics $300 million cut in planetary […]
JAXA's proposed HT-R vehicle would return cargo and launch crews. (Credit: JAXA)
Spaceflight Now reports that JAXA is pushing for a human spaceflight program that would place a return capsule on its HTV freighter:
If approved by the Japanese government, the craft’s development would follow a crawl-walk-run approach. Japan has already demonstrated its H-2 Transfer Vehicle can haul cargo and experiments to the space station, and next up could be developing a return capsule to bring equipment from the outpost back to Earth.