Phobos-Grunt in preparation. (Credit: Roscosmos)

Roscosmos says that radiation in low Earth orbit fried Phobos-Grunt’s computer, an explanation that not everyone is buying:

“The most likely reason, in the opinion of the commission, was the local impact of heavily charged space particles that led to a failure in the memory of the main onboard computer in the second stage of flight,” [Roscosmos Head Vladimir] Popovkin told Russian news agencies in Voronezh, a town 450 km (280 miles) south of Moscow.

A burst of space radiation caused the onboard computers to reboot and go into standby mode, he said.

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MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA’s Ames Research Center, in conjunction with NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist’s Emerging Space Office, is continuing its support for the Space Frontier Foundation’s annual Business Plan Competition by funding this year’s awards totaling $110,000.

The Space Frontier Foundation Business Plan Competition will be held during a three-day event at NASA Ames in July 2012. The NASA supported Emerging Space Grand Prize will include an award of $100,000 for the best business plan with the potential to contribute to space development. NASA also is supporting a second prize of $10,000.
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Michael Belfiore was in Mojave a couple of weeks ago for Popular Mechanics. His latest piece has updates on various projects that are not nicknamed Birdzilla: The new ship has begun atmospheric test flights, launched into free fall from its WhiteKnightTwo mother ship at 50,000 feet. Both vehicles—SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo—were in various states of disassembly on my visit—the mother ship for its annual inspection and overhaul, the spaceship with its […]

This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. Monday, Jan. 30, 2011 2-3:30 PM PST, 5-6:30 PM EST, 4-5:30 PM CST: We welcome ALAN BOYLE back to the program. Alan is the author of Cosmic Log for msnbc.com. Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, 7-8:30 PM PST, 10-11:30 PM EST, 9-10:30 PM CST: We welcome William Melberg to the program. Bill Mellberg is a former press representative and commercial market analyst […]

Newt_Gingrich (Credit: Gage Skidmore)

TPIS PR — (Titusville FL) — Tea Party in Space (TPIS) is excited to endorse Newt Gingrich for President of the United States.  Mr. Gingrich is the only candidate who consistently articulates a bright vision for future American space exploration and settlement.  Mr. Gingrich’s unique approach of utilizing the government and private sector is exactly what NASA needs.

“Newt Gingrich is the only credible candidate in this primary race in Florida who has any credibility when it comes to America’s future in space,” said Andrew Gasser, President and National Coordinator for TPIS.  “Newt will not have to take a poll or rely on ‘advisors’ who have a history of poor history of delays and significant budget overruns.  Instead, he wants to return NASA to the beaming example of American exceptionalism that it once was.”

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XCOR PR — January 30, 2012 Mojave, CA: XCOR Aerospace and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announce the final week to register and become eligible to win a suborbital research flight on XCOR’s Lynx I vehicle at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC-2012) in Palo Alto, CA on February 27-29. The deadline for early conference registration and for entering the drawing is the 10th of February at nsrc.swri.org.

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An interesting and coherent discussion on MSNBC about Newt Gingrich’s plan to establish a lunar colony by early 2021.

STIG rocket. (Credit: Ben Brockert)

NMSA PR – Upham, NM –New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced today a launch of a “STIG-A” rocket designed and built by Armadillo Aerospace. The launch took place from Spaceport America’s vertical launch complex on Saturday, January 28, 2012. The research and development test flight was a non-public, unpublished event at the request of Armadillo Aerospace, as the company is testing proprietary advanced launch technologies.

Saturday’s Armadillo launch successfully lifted off at approximately 11:15 a.m. (MDT), which was within the dedicated, five-hour launch window, and preliminary data indicates the rocket reached its projected altitude of over 137,000 feet.

The STIG-A’s recovery system did not function properly after reaching its desired altitude however, the rocket was successfully retrieved after a hard landing within the predicted Spaceport America mission recover zone.

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Vega's upper composite, comprising LARES, ALMASat-1, seven CubeSats and the fairing, was transferred to the pad on 24 January and added to the vehicle at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Credits: ESA - M. Pedoussaut, 2012

Space News reports that nine years of European effort coupled with a bout of inflation have produced a Vega rocket that can compete with Russian boosters for launching small payloads:

Europe’s Vega small-satellite launcher, whose inaugural flight is scheduled for mid-February, will be sold commercially for about 32 million euros ($42 million) per launch — a price that can compete with converted Russian ballistic missiles, Vega officials said Jan. 23.

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More quality control problems with Russia’s human spaceflight program. A planned March 30 launch of a new three-man crew to the International Space Station could be delayed about a month due to an air leak discovered during vacuum testing of the crew’s Soyuz capsule, RIA Novosti reports. The new crew of Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and Joseph Acaba was set to dock at the station on April 1. They would […]