Gwynne Shotwell
President, SpaceX

1,300 employees and growing….
Expects to grow at 20-40 percent

Falcon 1e is on hold at the moment until next year

COTS Program –

• $278 million over 4.5 years
• NASA has added $100 million for additional tests

NASA wants a brand new Dragon after each flight
Used capsules will be refurbished and used for DragonLab (experiments)
Not sure how much it will cost to refurbish – less than they thought based on the first Dragon flight – capsule came back in great shape

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Orbital Outfitters
Jeff Feige

Founded in 2006 to serve the NewSpace industry….

No significant improvements in space suits over the past few decades

Existing spacesuits not the right solution for the emerging industry – affordable and reliable

Suit Design Priorities (in that order)

1. Safety
2. Performance – enable wearer to perform whatever tasks you’ve laid out for them – differs
3. Maintain comfort

No such thing as a one-suit-fits-all – need customization to fit different vehicles

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I’m in Phoenix at Space Access ’11. The conference runs through Saturday. I will be blogging here and on Twitter @spacecom NASA’s Dennis Stone is up now giving an update on COTS and CCDev. The schedule for the rest of the day, all times ET/PT: 6:20/3:20 — SEDS/Sara Meschberger 7/4 — Orbital Outfiiters/Jeff Feige 7:20/4:20 — Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX 8:10/5:10 — Misuzu Onuki on Japanese space activities 8:30/5:30 — Gary […]

AEROSPACE CORP. PR — In late 2009, The Aerospace Corporation conducted an internally funded project to develop a model of the business-case of commercial crew space transportation. NASA’s Independent Program & Cost Evaluation department subsequently asked for, and funded, an expanded and refined analysis of Aerospace’s initial work.

A summary of the tool was presented to NASA senior leadership February 28th.

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Cosmic Log’s Alan Boyle has an update on NASA’s CCDev 2 funding, which the space agency had reportedly planned to announce this week: The CCDev2 announcement has been delayed indefinitely, apparently because of the continuing back-and-forth over the federal budget, according to John Elbon, vice president and program manager for commercial crew programs at the Boeing Co. Alan has more about CCDev here.

Some spectacular footage of Richard Branson’s futuristic space plane flying over the Pacific Ocean near San Francisco.

NSS PR — Dr. Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, a Senior Fellow at India’s Institute of Security Studies, and Senior Fellow at India’s Observer Research Foundation, is urging the United States and India to jointly develop an energy alternative that can take us beyond nuclear technology.  Events like the recent earthquake in Japan are causing many to rethink traditional energy sources.  The energy alternative suggested is Space Solar Power (SSP).  In the online Analysis publication of the Indian Observer Research Foundation, Dr. Rajagopalan writes, “With the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, isn’t it time for India and the US to make serious commitments to Space-Based Solar Power?”

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The European Union is increasingly involving itself in space policy and programs, areas that it has largely left to the European Space Agency and various national space agencies.

The union’s space initiatives include: building the Galileo satellite navigation system; developing an integrated space policy; pursuing a space industrial policy in cooperation with ESA and member states; increasing Europe’s independence in space; and deepening cooperation with nations outside of Europe, in particular China.

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WhiteKnightTwo flew SpaceShipTwo north to San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday. The trip was part of a promotional effort to mark the re-opening of the newly-renovated Terminal 2, which houses Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines. Sir Richard Branson flew in for the festivities, which were also attended by…. wait for it….the ubiquitous Buzz Aldrin.

As I surmised, the leaked Aerospace Corporation study that showed NASA spending an obscene amount of money on commercial crew procurement is much ado about nothing. Space News explains:

Los Angeles-based Aerospace Corp., in an undated explanation of the study and its methodology, said the analysis was merely intended to develop a modeling tool that could be applied to a variety of data.

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The above table has data on the most powerful boosters in the world at present along with information about rockets that are currently under development. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy is the largest rocket on the list, followed by Russia’s Angara booster. It should be noted that SpaceX and Russia have plans for uprated versions of Falcon Heavy, Angara and Rus-M. China also has plans for follow-ups for its Long March 5 […]

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov

In a stinging rebuke, Russia has announced that embattled Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov will step down after seven years at the helm of the Russian space agency. The announcement comes less than a week before Perminov is set to host the heads of 40 space agencies for the 50th anniversary celebration of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin and conduct high-level negotiations with NASA.

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