Dream Chaser cockpit simulator. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)

NASA PR — NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), together with its industry partners, continued progressing toward commercial human spaceflight capability by mid-decade by successfully completing all five planned milestones during this 60-day period.

• Readiness of a new cockpit simulator for Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft was verified and is now being used for engineering development tests.
• The tip fin airfoil design for the Dream Chaser was also selected.
• A launch abort system concept review for SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which showed feasibility of their design concept
• Boeing’s CST100 “phase zero” safety review, which identified initial safety considerations and controls
• Boeing’s fourth CST100 integrated design review, which established design trade studies to be conducted before Boeing’s preliminary design review next year

Chart showing completed tasks and upcoming milestones for all four CCDev 2 partners and United Launch Alliance as of Aug. 16 are shown after the break.

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This week on The Space Show with Dr. David Livingston…. Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011, 7-9:00 PM PDT: Open Lines. See the website newsletter for preferred discussion topics. Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:30-11 AM PDT: We will be discussing the upcoming AIAA Space 2011 Conference in Long Beach, CA from Sept. 27-29, 2011. Our guests are Retired General Bob Dickman of AIAA and Dr. Jeff Puschell of Raytheon Space & Airborne […]

Boulder, Colorado – September 6, 2011 – Space Angels Network, LLC, a national network of seed‐ and early stage investors focused on aerospace‐related ventures, and eSpace: The Center For Space Entrepreneurship in Boulder, Colorado, today announced the beginning of a collaborative partnership to help foster the success of entrepreneurial space ventures. Under the new agreement, Space Angels Network will work with companies participating in eSpace’s programs to help them prepare for pitching their new ventures to investors. The companies will then have the opportunity to meet with Space Angels Network members to facilitate investments.
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Charles de Gaulle -- not one of Brazil's biggest fans.

“Brazil is the country of the future…and always will be.”

So wryly observed Charles de Gaulle decades ago, marveling at how South America’s largest country, blessed with enormous resources and an industrious population, was forever failing to live up to enormous potential.

Brazil seems to be on the verge of ending that cycle. Economic and political reforms of the past decade have put the nation firmly on the path to becoming a regional and global power. During the next five years, Brazil will shine on the global stage as it hosts two of the world’s greatest sporting events, the Summer Olympics and the soccer World Cup.

And yet amid the optimism, the nation’s future is clouded by a lack of trained workers, a critical shortage of investments in key areas, and an often disorganized government. Nowhere are these shortcomings more apparent than in the nation’s space program and, in particular, its efforts to turn its sleepy Alcântara Launch Center into a world-class spaceport.

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The Mars500 crew is only two months from their ‘arrival’ back on Earth and they can’t wait to see the sunlight. To prepare for that and to understand more about how the human brain reacts to variations of day and night and adjusts the sleep-wake cycle, the marsonauts are wearing red glasses andilluminating their modules with blue light. Diego explains about the photopigments in our eyes and and shows how […]

AIAA PR — The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will present awards recognizing key achievements in space science and technology, space program management, and sustained service to the Institute, at a noon awards luncheon on September 28 as part of the AIAA SPACE 2011 Conference & Exposition, September 27–29, at the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach, Calif. JAXA’s Hayabusa and ETS-VII/JEMS teams will received awards during the ceremony.

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Virgin Galactic’s first ever Industry Day is a chance for potential suppliers to learn more about the goods and services that we will need to set up operations at Spaceport America in New Mexico and become the world’s first commercial spaceline.

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When NASA announced the selection of seven companies to integrate and fly technology payloads on suborbital vehicles, the list included most of the usual suspects such as Virgin Galactic, XCOR and Armadillo.

It also included a couple of lesser known companies, including Whittinghill Aerospace. The Camarillo, Calif.-based company has a website with a single page featuring nothing but its logo. However, it has a good pedigree.

The company is owned by George Whittinghill, an MIT graduate who was formerly chief technologist for Virgin Galactic, CTO at Space Launch Corporation, and a flight crew instructor at NASA.

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From top to bottom, pictured (not to scale) are the moon, Venus, and an asteroid.

SWF PR — A workshop has brought together leading representatives from space agencies and international experts to discuss key issues related to global response and cooperation in the event of a Near Earth Object (NEO) impact threat to Earth.

The gathering of specialists took place August 25-26 in Pasadena, California. The meeting was co-organized and co-sponsored by Action Team-14, part of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, Secure World Foundation (SWF), and the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) that represents over 350 individuals from 35 nations who have flown in space.

The supporting agency host of the meeting was the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Near Earth Object Observations Program Office.

This recent workshop is a follow-up to previous meetings that took place last year in Mexico City to discuss a NEO Information, Analysis, and Warning Network (IAWN) and in Darmstadt, Germany to confer about a NEO Mission Planning and Operations Group, or MPOG, to plan, organize, and conduct any necessary missions to threatening asteroids.

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AIA PR — September 02, 2011 — The International Association of Machinists and the Aerospace Industries Association sent a letter to President Obama Sept. 1 urging him to preserve the aerospace and defense industry and its high-skilled workforce.

“As you finalize proposals to save and create American jobs, we urge you to consider the vital role that our second to none aerospace and defense industry has played in America’s global leadership, and to keep in mind the many thousands of aerospace and defense workers that face the loss of their jobs in these difficult economic times,” the letter urged.

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