Florida Today reports that Boeing has finalized plans to assemble its new CST-100 spacecraft at Cape Canaveral: The Boeing Co. next week will confirm plans to assemble a commercial space capsule in one of the former shuttle hangars at Kennedy Space Center, work that could create more than 500 jobs. The company on Tuesday emailed invitations to VIP guests for a 10 a.m. Monday event at a hangar that formerly […]
AUTHOR
Doug Messier
Virgin Galactic pilot Keith Colmer.
VG PR (MOJAVE, CA) — Just over fifty years ago, an historic competition for the first pilots to fly into space yielded the Mercury Seven astronauts. Today, from an intense selection process with more than 500 applicants including some of the best pilots in the world, Virgin Galactic has selected former USAF test pilot Keith Colmer as the first astronaut pilot to join the commercial spaceline’s flight team. Colmer will join Chief Pilot David Mackay to begin flight training and testing, leading to operational missions to space with Virgin Galactic’s revolutionary vehicles, WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Additional selections will be made as the company nears commercial operations.
The fabulously attired astronauts aboard Hugo Drax's space station/nerve gas delivery facility get a taste of zero g, courtesy of Bond, James Bond. (Copyright: United Artists)
A couple of brief updates on Virgin Galactic.
Chef Pilot David Mckay tells The Wall Street Journal’s Andy Pasztor that the company wants to begin flying passengers by 2013:
“‘We would certainly like to be in commercial operation by then,'” said Mr. Mackay, a former airline captain and Royal Air Force test pilot.”
With powered tests using the hybrid engine set to begin in the second quarter of 2012, this would be seem to be a reasonable schedule. Pasztor says the company has invested $270 million thus far; Virgin officials have said they expect the entire effort to cost $400 million.
Meanwhile, Rob Coppinger reports that when VG’s millionaut clients fly, they will look fabulous in soft spacesuits that will resemble the ones that James Bond and Dr. Holly Goodhead (I’m not making that name up) work in the 1979 film “Moonraker.”
ATLANTA, October 25, 2011 – Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. (Generation Orbit or GO) announced operation today as a new venture dedicated to the creation of a fast, flexible, and dedicated nanosatellite (1-30 kg) orbital payload delivery service. The service, called GO Launcher, will use existing high-speed jet aircraft and mostly existing rockets. Generation Orbit was officially announced today at the 2011 Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange (CRASTE) conference being held in Atlanta, GA.
GO is developing a new United States-designed and operated nanosatellite launch system called GO Launcher, an air-launch rocket architecture composed of an existing, reusable high-speed aircraft launch platform and expendable rocket stages. GO Launcher is designed to reduce the time it takes to get to space (under the mantra of “Your Orbit, On Time”) for the emerging field of nanosatellite customers.
Excalibur Almaz has signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA to obtain the space agency’s assistance with its bid to provide commercial crew services to the International Space Station. News of the Oct. 17 agreement was included in a footnote in the charter of a House Science Committee hearing taking place this morning.
Reginaldo dos Santos, Mercadante and Juniti Saito. Credit: Lecino Filho/Ascom do MCTI
McTier OPR — The new director general of Alcantara Cyclone Space (ACS), Reginaldo dos Santos, took office on Monday (24) in Brasilia. The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Mercadante, attended the ceremony.
Mercadante stressed the importance that Brazil has the technological autonomy in the space and the need for private sector participation in this process.
“We want more participation of private industry in the space program. Part of success is in us improve the relationship of the state with the private sector, “he said.
ULA's Atlas V
The U.S. Air Force’s plan to purchase 40 rockets from United Launch Alliance has hit another snag, Aviation Week reports:
The top two senators from the Senate Armed Services Committee are calling for the U.S. Air Force to halt talks worth up to $15 billion with its top rocket provider owing to insufficient pricing data and management insight for the service to make “informed decisions” for crafting a new buy strategy for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles (EELV).
“Given the current climate of fiscal austerity, these developments are profoundly troubling,” says Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in an Oct. 21 letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
This week in The Space Review…. A gateway to space emerges in the desert Last Month Virgin Galactic formally dedicated its “Gateway to Space”, the new terminal building and hangar at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Jeff Foust reports on the event as well as the work still in progress for both Virgin’s spacecraft and the spaceport itself. Recalling the Mars flagships November is shaping up to be a critical […]
Space News reports that SpaceX has moved to resolve previous concerns about the software development for its Dragon spacecraft, which is set to visit the International Space Station next year:
A generally positive outside review of the two firms under contract to deliver cargo to the international space station (ISS) contained strong concerns about software development procedures at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) — concerns the company and the head of a NASA safety panel said have since been addressed….
“SpaceX is entrepreneurial; their thinking is a fresh approach … However, their comments with regard to software were very disturbing and presented a lack of insight and sophistication in what can go wrong in this business,” the summary states. Thomas Stafford, the retired Apollo astronaut who chairs the ISS Advisory Committee, submitted the summary to Congress as part of his Oct. 12 testimony before a House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee hearing on ISS safety.
The Gazeta do Povo reports on plans by the Dilma government to significantly increase space spending in Brazil, a boost that will allow for the launching of two new rockets:
The Brazilian Space Program will receive $ 2.1 billion federal investment over the next four years. Among the main goals are to launch four satellites and the construction of a rocket. Resources are provided in the Plan (PPA) from 2012-2015 and have the objective of restructuring the country’s space policy. Experts said the reorganization of the sector is strategic and can generate a leap of technological development in Brazil…In 2010, the budget was $ 300 million.