Falcon 9 launch. (Credit: Chris Thompson)
SPACEX — Hawthorne, CA – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is searching for a new launch site to meet increasing demand from commercial customers.
SpaceX already has an active launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is currently developing a new launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The company also operates a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.
This picture shows three High Operating Temperature Infrared Sensors, mounted on leadless chip carriers. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA PR — Two NASA California centers have been selected to develop new space-aged technologies that could be game-changers in the way we look at planets from above and how we safely transport robots or humans through space and bring them safely back to Earth.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will use advanced compound semiconductor materials to develop new technologies for the High Operating Temperature Infrared Sensor Demonstration. NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., is developing the Woven Thermal Protection System to radically change the way heat shields protect spacecraft during re-entry.
Ukraine's Cyclone rocket
The National Space Agency of Ukraine is looking to foster the “development of public-private partnership [and the] deepening the commercialization of space activities and international cooperation” as part of a series of changes to the nation’s space policy.
“For the first time to finance the program is envisaged to raise funds from other sources in amounts that make up about a third of the necessary funding and the development and implementation of public-private partnership,” according to a press released posted on the space agency’s website.
For some reason, the lyrics to “The Flintstones” instantly flashed through my head when I read this:
Frustrated that White House officials have ignored congressional language curtailing scientific collaborations with China, legislators have decided to get their attention through a 32% cut in the tiny budget of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).
I’m not sure why I immediately thought of Fred, Barney, Betty and whatshername? Maybe it’s my sense that the Republicans in Congress form some sort of “modern Stone Age family” with rocks in their heads instead of brains. And that they have some sort of innate aversion to the type of serious science that tells us that people and dinosaurs didn’t really walk the Earth at the same time. Not all Republicans, mind you. Just enough of them to have influence over vital national policies. And that even a single member with that type of power is one too many.
Allow me to explain. First, the back story.
Video Caption: Here’s a video from a camera on Xombie looking down at the ground during a pad-to-pad flight that you might recognize as almost identical to the flight path flown during the Lunar Lander Challenge. In this case, we had about 60 lbs of payload at the top of the vehicle and she handled it with ease!
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Alexandria, VA– As you’ve probably heard, Congress has just cut NASA’s budget again, below last year’s funding and well below the President’s request. Next year, this will happen again. And the year after that.
Some of you may be horrified at this prospect. And some of you may hope it promotes needed reforms. It doesn’t really matter, because there’s nothing anyone can do to change the basic math.
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, Astrobotic’s privately funded lunar rover, and NASA’s Curiosity, Dawn and MESSENGER missions have made Popular Science’s Best of What’s New 2011 list.
PopSci singled out Dragon for the Grand Award in the Aviation & Space category. The magazine calls the vehicle “the future of American spaceflight,” a ship that will eventually fly cargo and crews to the International Space Station, the moon and Mars.
China’s unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou VIII landed in northern Inner Mongolia on Thursday, completing a successful mission that included docking twice at the Tiangong-1 space station. The flight paves the way for two crews to visit the orbiting laboratory in 2012.
KAZKOSMOS PR — In the period from Nov. 11 to 17, a Kazkosmos delegation headed by Chairman Talgat Musabayev is participating in the “Dubai Air Show 2011” being held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). As part of “Dubai Air Show 2011”, the Kazkosmos delegation plans to meet with representatives of the Institute for Advanced Science and Technology of the United Arab Emirates to discuss cooperation in space activities. At the […]
“We do [have a date for beginning commercial operations], but what we don’t do is announce it publicly. And the reason for that is just that I don’t want to put schedule pressure on our engineers. You know, schedule pressure was essentially what caused Challenger….We’re getting close. We hope to get to space next year, and start commercial operations as soon as we can after that. I don’t give out a date. We don’t give out a date outside the company, but we’re getting close.”
— Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides
on The Space Show with David Livingston
Nov. 4, 2011
“Commercial spaceship travel is, I think, about a year away….Hopefully, by next Christmas, myself my daughter and my son will be the first people to go up into space.”
— Sir Richard Branson
in The Hague (see video above)
Nov. 14, 2011
If everything goes smoothly, “we would hope to be flying people to space by 2013.”
— Virgin Galactic Commercial Director Stephen Attenborough
at an international media and marketing conference in Singapore
Nov. 14, 2011
Oops. Looks like some people didn’t get the memo.
Those poor engineers. Their respite from the pressures of publicly announced commercial start dates didn’t even last two weeks. 🙁
