I paid my first visit to XCOR since last summer. The shop floor in their hanger at the Mojave Air & Space Port was much more crowded with test articles and equipment than the last time I visited. They are about to get a lot busier over the next year as the company makes a push to build the Lynx Mark 1 test vehicle.
SpaceShipTwo suffered an aborted release during a test flight last week, according to Scaled Composites’ flight log: “Flight termination due to abnormal release system behavior. Post flight inspection revealed cause and confirmed the system stayed in a safe configuration throughout the flight.”
KSCVC PR — Visitors to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be invited to participate in a mission to win over $300,000 in prizes including two suborbital trips to space in the Launch of a Lifetime Sweepstakes. Sponsored by TripAlertz.com, two lucky winners will be drawn for a trip to space aboard the XCOR Aerospace Lynx Vehicle, including space flight training. Each package includes round trip airline tickets for each grand prize winner and a guest, five night hotel accommodations, six day rental car and select meals. Prize drawings of merchandise certificates from The Space Shop, admission tickets, Special Interest Tours and Lunch With an Astronaut tickets will be held daily and weekly for registered guests. (more…)
NASA PR — BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — NASA’s new J-2X rocket engine, which could power the upper stage of the nation’s future heavy-lift launch vehicle, is ready for its first round of testing. The fully assembled engine was installed Saturday in the A-2 Test Stand at the agency’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
Beginning in mid-June, the engine will undergo a series of 10 test firings that will last several months.
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The space shuttle Endeavour streaks across the night sky over the Yucatan on its re-entry.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 on the pad at Cape Canaveral. (Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX)
HAWTHORNE, CA – Thai satellite company THAICOM Plc. (SET Index: THCOM) has chosen Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to launch the new Thaicom 6 telecommunications satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) from its Cape Canaveral launch site in the second quarter of 2013.
The contract brings another international launch to the United States to fly with SpaceX. Thaicom is the eighth non-U.S. customer manifested for upcoming flights aboard the Falcon 9.
This week on The Space Show with David Livingston… Monday, June 13, 2011 2-3:30 PM PDT: Our guests are Dr. Klaus Dannenberg of AIAA, Dr. Jeff Farmer of MSFC, and Dr. Dave Williams of NASA JSC will be discussing the upcoming AIAA ICES Conference in Portland, OR from July 17-21, 2011. Tuesday, June 14, 2011, 7-8:30 PM PDT: We welcome Marc Kaufman, author of the new book “First Contact: Scientific […]
An upcoming commercial for Justin Bieber’s new “Someday” women’s fragrance has been shot in microgravity, according to multiple press reports. It’s not clear from the stories which parabolic aircraft was used. The advertisement features model and actress Dree Hemingway Crisman (below), who is the great-granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway. The commercial will begin running on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) and continue to air throughout the Christmas holiday season. […]
OSR PR — Odyssey Space Research, L.L.C., today announced a space-based, experimental app, dubbed SpaceLab for iOS, which will be used for space research aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceLab for iOS app will make its way to the ISS on an iPhone® 4 aboard the orbiter Atlantis on the space shuttle fleet’s historic final mission, STS-135, and will remain there for several months for the ISS crew to conduct a series of experiments. Odyssey also announced it is bringing the astronauts’ on-orbit experimental tasks down to earth for “terrestrial” consumers to enjoy via the SpaceLab for iOS app available today from the App Store℠.
The SpaceLab for iOS app will utilize the innovative features of iPhone 4, including the three-axis gyro, accelerometer, Retina display, cameras and A4 chip, for space-based research. The crew will conduct various experiments to collect data which could one day find use in practical applications, such as the recovery of navigation information for a spacecraft that might be “lost in space.” A ground-based user of the SpaceLab for iOS app will be able to conduct the same experiments with certain features simulated to account for the presence of gravity.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy NBC looks at the new commercial space race.
NASA PR — An Aerojet AJ26 flight engine for Orbital Sciences Corporations’ Taurus II space launch vehicle experienced a premature shutdown during a test firing on June 9. The test was conducted on the E-1 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Orbital and Aerojet are investigating the cause of the early shutdown. Stennis will perform checkouts to the facility to ensure its operational integrity. “This is the reason we […]
June 6 turned out to be D-Day for the California Space Authority. CSA’s board of directors voted unanimously to dissolve the struggling non-profit organization, which promoted the state’s aerospace industry. CSA ceased operations on Friday. Media reports indicate that the decision came after $5 million in federal funding did not come through. In a brief email sent out on Friday, the CSA said: The CSA staff, past and present, have […]
