Stratolaunch vehicle. (Credit: Stratolaunch)
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Video Caption: International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy as seen from about 240 miles above the Earth’s horizon on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
NASA PR — NASA successfully conducted a drop test of the Orion crew vehicle’s parachutes high above the Arizona desert Tuesday, Dec. 20, in preparation for its orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing.
U.S. orbital launch vehicles, operational and in development. (Credit: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University/Parabolicarc.com)
Stratolaunch Systems’ announcement last week has required me to revise the old launch vehicle charts. I couldn’t quite get the Stratolaunch graphic I wanted, but I think this is pretty close to scale. It certainly is on the wingspan. As you can see, it doesn’t quite fit in; if Stratolaunch were a reindeer, it would definitely be named Rudolph.
Despite its massive size, the Stratolaunch system is far down on the table because rockets on this graphic are arranged according to lifting capacity to low Earth orbit. Stratolaunch’s 6,100 kg. capacity is equal to the Delta II to its left. Unlike the Delta II, its first stage is reusable. (more…)
Joe Miller, a database administrator (DBA) for Research In Motion at its Mississauga, Ontario campus, has won Red Gate Software’s DBA in Space contest. The prize was either a trip into space via Space Adventures or $100,000. Miller took the money, which he plans to invest in order to purchase a ticket later.
Roscosmos and ESA have agreed to pursue missions aimed at returning soil samples from the south pole of the moon and landing a spacecraft on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, according to a Roscosmos press statement.
The decision was made during a Dec. 19 meeting between Roscosmos Head Vladimir Popovkin and ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain. The space agency chiefs also discussed the potential involvement of Russia in the U.S.-European ExoMars program and collaboration in developing new launch vehicles.
NASA PR — Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Don Pettit, Oleg Kononenko and Andre Kuipers launched at 8:16 a.m. EST on Wednesday (7:16 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The three new International Space Station crew members launched in their Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft beginning a two-day trip to the orbiting outpost. They are set to dock to the station’s Rassvet mini-research module about 10:22 a.m. on Friday. Expedition […]
The Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft that will carry new Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko, Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers into space rolled out to the launch pad Monday at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch is scheduled for Wednesday at 8:16 a.m. EST, with NASA TV coverage beginning at 7:30 a.m. The Soyuz will dock to the International Space Station Friday morning. The mission will return the ISS crew size […]
MOFFET FIELD, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.
NASA PR — WASHINGTON — NASA has selected 85 small business proposals to enter into negotiations for Phase II contract awards through the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program.
The selected projects have a total value of approximately $63 million. NASA will award the contracts to 79 small high technology firms in 27 states. These competitive awards-based programs encourage U.S. small businesses to engage in federal research, development and commercialization. The programs also enable businesses to explore technological potential, while providing the incentive to profit from new commercial products and services.