A recent video of a Masten Space Systems’ Xombie free flight in Mojave. In a blog post, Colin Ake gives an extensive update on the company’s progress: “We get a lot of questions on where we’re at on our CRuSR flights and the answer there is “we’re still cooking.” We’ve been flying Xaero a lot. As in multiple days a week, multiple flights per day. We’ve been doing lots of […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Loading… The Mars500 crew emerges in Moscow after a 520-day simulation of a mission to the Red Planet.
Astronaut Shannon Walker activates nanoracks. Image credit: NASA
NanoRacks PR — The American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSB), a U.S. non-profit 501(C)(6) scientific society, announces today an agreement has been signed with NanoRacks (Houston, Texas) to fly a student space flight experiment on-board the NASA International Space Station (ISS).
NanoRacks is an industry leader in low-earth orbit space services NanoRacks. NanoRacks, LLC is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement for the use of the U.S. National Lab. ASGSB has entered into an agreement with NanoRacks as a result of an industry partnership agreement with the Science and Technology Corporation (STC). STC is a small, high-technology company that has experience in nano-satellite and space instrument development. www.stcnet.com/
Installation of NASA"s Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) module aboard the International Space Station. RRM will to test technologies for the romote serviicing of satellites. (Credit: NASA)
NASA has released a request for information (RFI) on the development of on-orbit robotic servicing capabilities for spacecraft.The RFI seeks information from U.S. companies on three potential models:
- Government partners with a competitively selected commercial company to develop the technology, with the commercial Partner assuming responsibility for the purchase/cost, and therefore ownership, of all flight hardware.
- Government issues a competitive solicitation for on-orbit satellite servicing for Government-owned satellites and pays fixed amounts for the services.
- Private companies develop this technology on their own with no access to government technical expertise; if requested and deemed appropriate, government IP would be made available on a non-exclusive basis subject to export restrictions.
The full RFI is reproduced after the break. Responses are due on Jan. 4. For more information, visit here.
OSTP Director John Holdren
FRANK WOLF PR – Washington, D.C. – Rep. Frank Wolf, chairman of the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, today asked the Justice Department to hold the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) accountable for breaking the law for leading science policy discussions with China.
The request comes after a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released earlier this week said that OSTP broke the law when it spent money on May meetings with the Chinese, despite language in a FY 2011 spending bill specifically barring them from doing so.
Washington, D.C., Thursday, November 3, 2011 – Eric Anderson, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, is pleased to announce that the Federation has selected Dr. Alexander Saltman as the organization’s Executive Director. Saltman is a physicist who has most recently served as the Legislative Director for Congressman Adam Schiff of California. His appointment will be effective November 14. Saltman succeeds John Gedmark, the organization’s founding Executive Director, who is departing to pursue a new opportunity.
Separately, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is currently conducting an executive search for a new President to replace Rear Admiral Craig Steidle, who stepped down earlier this fall for medical reasons.
An appeal from SaveSpace: No FDOT funds budgeted for space infrastracture for 5 years! by Save America’s Space Program on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 7:50am. The statewide Florida Department of Transportation Tentative Work Program for FY 2013-2017 was finalized on October 31. As it stands today no FDOT funds are budgeted for Space infrastructure for the next five years. This is the first step in the legislative budget process. […]
The most recent Virgin Galactic video highlighting progress on SpaceShipTwo that was unveiled during the dedication ceremony at Spaceport America last month.
Florida Today provides some more details on an agreement between Space Florida and Virgin Galactic to fly experiments aboard SpaceShipTwo that was announced last month:
Space Florida will pay to fly a scientist and student experiments from Florida on Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceship, an investment intended to stimulate interest in science and technology education and boost the state’s role in space-based research.
The state agency’s board on Wednesday unanimously approved spending up to $400,000 for two seats on a flight.
Pilot Rick Svetkoff sits in the cockpit of a Starfighters, Inc. F-104 supersonic jet before conducting a high speed taxi test at the Shuttle Landing Facility. Image credit: NASA/Gianni M. Woods
By Melanie Carlson
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center
Plans to launch small satellites into orbit from the wings of a supersonic jet are moving along following a taxi test on the runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Starfighters, Inc. F-104 rolled to a stop Oct. 27 at the Shuttle Landing Facility after the supersonic aircraft conducted a high-speed taxi test. Piloted by Rick Svetkoff, the F-104 reached speeds of 150 mph as it taxied up and down the runway. The test was carried out to evaluate a newly developed suborbital vehicle that has the potential to carry nanosatellites into low Earth orbit. Commercial carriers like Starfighters, Inc., want to provide a convenient, reasonably priced option for universities and scientific institutions to build and launch missions.