SpaceX’s launch of the first Dragon flight to the International Space Station has been delayed a month into late April, the company announced in a statement.

“The primary driver for the schedule continues to be the need to conduct extensive software testing,” SpaceX said. “This is a challenging mission and we intend to take every necessary precaution in order to improve the likelihood of success.”

Meanwhile, SpaceX founder Elon Musk says that the rocket company could make its initial public offering (IPO) of stock in 2013:

“There’s a good chance that SpaceX goes public next year,” Musk, 40, said yesterday in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, without elaborating.

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Dave Masten of Mojave-based Masten Space Systems discusses Newt Gingrich’s moon base plan at SpaceUp San Diego, February 4, 2012 at Ansir Innovation Center.

Houston, Texas (Astrium NA/NanoRacks PR) — Astrium North America is proud to announce that Astrium Space Transportation and NanoRacks LLC have teamed up to offer a cost‐effective, commercial centrifuge facility for the International Space Station.

Astrium Space Transportation is handing over on the 14th of February to NanoRacks LLC a gravitational research centrifuge marking a new era of commercial utilization of the U.S. National Lab. The handover will take place at Astrium North America’s Houston facility.

The centrifuge will allow researchers to perform research under various gravity levels, including Mars and Moon conditions or as 1‐G control to contrast results with microgravity projects conducted on the space station.

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The spaceport terminal in Curacao should give the one in New Mexico a run for its money.

Amsterdam (SXC PR) – Today, Space Expedition Curacao announces the first Australian to be travelling into space with them: 84 year old Melbourne businessman Nigel Peck AM (Order of Australia). The founder of NHP Electrical Engineering Products Pty Ltd, a manufacturing and distribution company employing 900 people, will be among the first , and most likely eldest, Australian astronauts ever. Peck will become part of both space and Australian history.

Nigel Peck is a well-known Australian businessman and yachtsman, who, despite his respectable age of 84, remains active in business, charity and travel. He is excited to be the first Australian astronaut. He is admiring earth and loves all adventures on earth as again demonstrated by his visit this month to the South Pole after an earlier expedition to the North Pole! Besides this he declares a love of aviation that dates back to his younger years.

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Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo, with the rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo attached, soars in a test flight over Spaceport America in the desert of southern New Mexico. Both ships were designed and built in Kern County. (Credit: David Wilson)

by Steven Mayer
Californian Staff Writer

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — If you ever visit this quirky little village named for a 1950s-era TV game show, you may think you’ve arrived in the middle of nowhere.

But you’re nowhere close.

Drive just another hour into the desert and watch as a stingray-shaped structure with an earth-colored roof slowly rises up from the desert floor like something out of a Star Wars movie.

You’ve arrived at Spaceport America, the $209 million great gleaming hope of the commercial space industry in New Mexico.

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by Rebecca Regan
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center

Just as every race car driver has a pit crew to keep them on track on the way to a victory quickly and safely, the seven aerospace companies that have teamed up with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program have their own PIT Crews, called Partner Integration Teams, to help guide them in their race to space.

They’re not packing an arsenal of air compressors, fuel, or even spare tires, though. Instead, NASA PIT Crews are equipped with the intimate knowledge of what is takes to design, develop, manufacture, process and launch space transportation systems. Lately, those teams have been making significant progress under Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2).

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA is seeking technology demonstration proposals for green propellant alternatives to the highly toxic fuel hydrazine. As NASA works with American companies to open a new era of access to space, the agency seeks innovative and transformative fuels that are less harmful to our environment.

Hydrazine is an efficient and ubiquitous propellant that can be stored for long periods of time, but is also highly corrosive and toxic. It is used extensively on commercial and defense department satellites as well as for NASA science and exploration missions. NASA is looking for an alternative that decreases environmental hazards and pollutants, has fewer operational hazards and shortens rocket launch processing times.
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Astronaut Shannon Walker activates an experiment aboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 8, 2012 (Astrogenetix PR) — Astrogenetix Corporation, a subsidiary of Astrotech Corporation (Nasdaq:ASTC – News), has entered into a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA, (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). This SAA commits to providing the critical resources needed to continue utilizing the International Space Station (ISS) and to further the development of important on-orbit microgravity vaccines and therapeutic drug experiments.

Astrogenetix entered into a similar SAA in 2009 resulting in 12 successful missions on the Space Shuttle that led to the discovery of potential vaccine targets for both salmonella and MRSA. This experience clearly identified that the most important part of the discovery process is the repeated frequency of access to microgravity. The new SAA reflects this important priority and NASA has committed to provide a minimum of 28 missions between 2013 and 2016.

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Rand Simberg had a conversation with Elon Musk about SpaceX’s plans for a fully reusable Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Some of the key highlights:

• “It really comes down to what the staging Mach number would be,” Musk says, referencing the speed the rocket would be traveling at separation. “For an expendable Falcon 9 rocket, that is around Mach 10. For a reusable Falcon 9, it is around Mach 6, depending on the mission.” For the reusable version, the rocket must be traveling at a slower speed at separation because the burn must end early, preserving enough propellant to let the rocket fly back and land vertically. This also makes recovery easier because entry velocities are slower.
• However, the slower speed also means that the upper stage of the Falcon rocket must supply more of the velocity needed to get to orbit, and that significantly reduces how much payload the rocket can lift into orbit. “The payload penalty for full and fast reusability versus an expendable version is roughly 40 percent,” Musk says. “[But] propellant cost is less than 0.4 percent of the total flight cost. Even taking into account the payload reduction for reusability, the improvement is therefore theoretically over a hundred times.” (more…)

A New Mexico Senate panel has killed a bill that would have extended liability protections manufacturers of parts and equipment used on commercial spaceflights:

The proposal failed in the Judiciary Committee on a 6-5 vote.

Democrats said the bill went too far in eroding the rights of consumers. The measure would have prevented passengers or their families from suing manufacturers of parts and equipment used in space flights.

Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, sponsored the bill on behalf of Spaceport America and businesses interested in New Mexico’s space industry. Papen said the vote was a disappointment and a setback for the $209 million Spaceport in Sierra County.

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