NASA Administrator — and four time shuttle veteran — Charles Bolden talks about the final space shuttle flight by Atlantis.
CSF PR – Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Friday, July 8, 2011 – As the Space Shuttle is readied for its final, historic flight today, the next NASA astronauts to launch from America will do so on a commercial spacecraft, in a historic shift.
“With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, it is time to look to our commercial spaceflight industry to provide safe and affordable crew delivery,” said Admiral Craig Steidle, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “The growth of commercial spaceflight will enable NASA to have a bright future ahead.”
“This week, we welcome the arrival of the Commercial Space Age,” added John Gedmark, Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
Atlantis roared off the pad at the Kennedy Space Center this morning for the 135th — and last — space shuttle flight. The 12-day mission to resupply the International Space Station closes out a 30-year program that has seen both great achievements and tragedies.
Henry Vanderbilt has sent out the latest Space Access Update spotlighting the key concerns about the House’s version of the NASA budget:
Do the math and this leaves $601 million for everything else NASA Exploration is supposed to do next year. This does not bode well for Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) getting the planned $850 million to allow support of multiple competing US commercial crew carriers. If CCDev fails, NASA is stuck paying ever-increasing Russian prices for Soyuz rides to Station for the next decade. (Soyuz seat prices are over $60 million each, and rising.) Cutting the CCDev program, aimed at developing low-cost US commercial competitors for Soyuz, seems a false economy to say the least.
Read the full update below.
Bob Richards’ Moon Express has some cool plans for exploring our closest celestial neighbor, ones that more resemble Mexican jumping beans than the traditional approaches.
Will Whitehorn gives a pat on the back to Richard Branson as he greets Virgin Galactic ticketholders during the Oshkosh air show in July 2009.
Virgin Galactic’s Founder says that commercial suborbital flights will take place between May and October 2012:
Sir Richard Branson said that the reason he established Virgin Galactic was because he ‘got sick sick of waiting for NASA.’ He confirmed that space flights for the public will commence in ’10 to 15 months.’ Another endeavour after this milestone will be to launch ‘a 2 to 3 hour London to Australia flight’ via space.
During the Twitter Town Hall meeting yesterday, President Barack Obama addressed the need to revamp America’s space program’s vision and operations:
“We’re still using the same models for space travel that we used with the Apollo program 30, 40 years ago. And so what we’ve said is, rather than keep on doing the same thing, let’s invest in basic research around new technologies that can get us places faster, allow human space flight to last longer.”
Read his full response below.
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Video Caption: After 30 years of service, the space shuttle is making its final journey. What’s next? Welcome to the great adventure of the 21st Century.
NASA PR — CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is entering into an agreement with Sierra Nevada Space Systems (SNSS) of Sparks, Nev., to offer technical capabilities from the center’s uniquely skilled work force.
Kennedy will help Sierra Nevada with the ground operations support of its lifting body reusable spacecraft called “Dream Chaser,” which resembles a smaller version of the space shuttle orbiter. The spacecraft would carry as many as seven astronauts to the space station.
ESA PR — A spacecraft control flap designed for the super-heated hypersonic fall through Earth’s atmosphere has come through testing in the world’s largest plasma wind tunnel to be ready for its first flight next year.
This flap and its advanced sensors are destined to fly on ESA’s Expert – the European Experimental Reentry Testbed – a blunt-nosed capsule being shot up to the edge of space next spring on a Russian Volna rocket to gather data on atmospheric reentry at 5 km/s.