SpaceShipTwo made its sixth glide test (and second in five days) in Mojave on Wednesday in a sign that the flight test program is speeding up. Flight: 57 / GF06 Date: 27 Apr 11 Flight Time: 16 min, 7 sec SS2 Pilot: Stucky SS2 CoPilot: Alsbury GS Crew: Binnie, Kelley, Bassett, Tighe, Reid, Glaser, Inks, Verderame, Maisler, Knupp Objectives: Evaluate stability and control Continued flutter envelope expansion Pilot proficiency Results: […]
Virgin Galactic touts Spaceport business: krqe.com Addressing the New Mexico Commercial Real Estate Development Association, NAIOP, Virgin Galactic Vice-President Will Pomeranz said each space tourist who comes here will bring an entourage that will need a complete spectrum of travel and tourist destination services. “They are going to be coming with their loved ones, their immediate family and most of them with a lot of others as well,†he said. […]
Spaceport America budget cut 57 percent Las Cruces Sun-News Spaceport America’s operating budget was slashed 57 percent in this year’s legislative session, spaceport officials heard for the first time Wednesday. The agency received about $1.17 million in the current fiscal year that ends June 30, according to spaceport Director Christine Anderson. But it’s slated to get about $500,000 next year, she said. The reduction is concerning, said spaceport board member […]
Parabolic Arc’s Fun With Numbers Tour continues this morning with a look at space tourism on this 10th anniversary of millionaut Dennis Tito’s historic flight to the International Space Station. And what a decade it’s been — for government space travel. Here’s why:
Table A(wesome): Human Spaceflight From Dennis Tito to Today
|
No. of Flights |
No. of Crew Members |
No. of Space Tourists |
Percentage of Total Flights |
Percentage of Total Crew |
Percentage of Tourists on Crews |
|
| Space Shuttle |
27 |
192 |
0 |
48.21 |
71.36 |
0 |
| Soyuz |
23 |
68 |
8 |
41.07 |
25.28 |
11.76 |
| Shenzhou |
3 |
6 |
0 |
5.36 |
2.23 |
0 |
| SpaceShipOne |
3 |
3 |
0 |
5.36 |
1.12 |
0 |
|
TOTALS: |
56 |
269 |
8 |
100 |
100 |
2.97 |
As Table A shows, space tourism has been making steady if unspectacular progress over the last decade. From zero percent on April 27, 2001, space tourism has climbed to nearly 3 percent of all crew members sent into space. Good job!
NASA is looking for industry feedback on a draft solicitation/request for proposal covering flight and payload integration services for suborbital reusable launch vehicles. The synopsis is reproduced after the break.
My good friend Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom has a new book out on the past and present of commercial spaceflight co-authored by Chris Dubbs. It’s excellent (I wrote a nice blurb for the back cover) and is well worth a read. Buy it through the link above and you can not only help support Parabolic Arc but also Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. (As to who needs the money more, I’ll leave […]
An update on China’s space station plans, which seems to be following the script the Russians wrote with their Salyut and Mir facilities.
Apparently not content to let the CCDev winners and NASA officials explain it for themselves tomorrow, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation has fired a preemptive first strike today in which they tell us WHAT IT ALL MEANS.
Paging Basil Exposition! Basil, you out there?….What? Kidnapped by Dr. Evil? Held hostage atop Mt. Olympus? Phobos headed straight for Earth! Holy shit!… Austin’s on it? OK. Good.
All right, we’ll go to the press release then. Here you are…
CSF PR — Kennedy Space Center, Florida – As President Obama and Americans nationwide honor the historic accomplishments of the retiring Space Shuttle, an exciting new era of commercial spaceflight is being readied. Tomorrow morning NASA will hold a press conference at Kennedy Space Center with commercial space pioneers.
With apologies to the late great Frank Sinatra… Fly me to the moon in a really cramped Soyuz show me lunar craters while I piss into a tube $150 mill for a lunar circ I hope the heat shield works…
SNC Dream Chaser docks with the International Space Station. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)
NASA PR — CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA will host a media briefing at 11 a.m. EDT Thursday, April 28, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to highlight the four companies selected for the second round of the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) efforts.