Above is an image of Armadillo Aerospace’s planned SOST crew vehicle taken from a presentation that Armadillo Vice President Neil Milburn gave during the 14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference. Additional slides on the vehicle and the company’s STIG rocket follow after the break.
Sen. Udall touts Dream Chaser space vehicle developed in Louisville Colorado Hometown Weekly U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., toured Sierra Nevada and the new space vehicle Tuesday as part of his Colorado Workforce tour, then led a town hall-style discussion with about 150 employees. “I’m here to be an advocate for the Colorado aerospace industry,” Udall said. “We’re going to be subject to buying seats from the Russians at $63 […]
Blue Origin Composite Crew Pressure Vessel
Above is Blue Origin’s composite crew pressure vessel, a sub-scale demonstrator that was built with funding from NASA’s CCDev program. This picture was part of a presentation that NASA Commercial Cargo & Crew Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer gave during the 14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference. Additional slides concerning Blue Origin’s program follow after the break.
ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain (Credit: JAXA)
ESA PR 11-2011 – The Council of the European Space Agency has appointed a team of Directors who will assist the Director General in the reorganised structure that takes effect on 1 April 2011.
The motive for changing the structure of the organisation is to make ESA even more competitive and efficient to increase its added value for Member States and third parties.
The timing is associated with the start of the third mandate of the Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain. The Director General wanted the Council to appoint a team of Directors as soon as possible for the duration of this mandate, which extends his term until 2015.
Keith Reiley of The Boeing Company recently gave an update on the company’s progress on its CST-100 crew vehicle during the 14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference. I’ve excerpted some of the most interesting slides and images from his presentation.
Seminar: UK – US Space Technology Opportunities
UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) invites you to participate in a dynamic seminar to learn about the latest developments in UK Space industry.
The UK space industry has gone through many exciting changes, which is presenting numerous commercial opportunities. By its nature, the space sector and supporting subsectors such as telecoms, GPS, integrated applications and robotics create large-scale international projects and contracts that could provide tremendous opportunity for US and UK business. This seminar will focus on these opportunities as well as provide more detailed information how to collaborate in target science areas and tap into R&D funding.
Construction of Spaceport Unit Will Resume Albuquerque Journal Construction of an aircraft rescue and firefighting building at Spaceport America, stalled since November, is scheduled to resume within three weeks. The Spaceport Authority’s former executive director, Rick Homans, halted work on the $2.9 million building because of concerns about how the first-floor space would be used and whether it was sufficient to meet the needs of future tenants. The project had […]
Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) will host another Entrepreneur Summit in Brevard County to continue efforts to bring together various entrepreneurs from across the 15th Congressional District to showcase their innovative technologies to the public and potential investors. The Entrepreneur Summit will take place in the Hartley Room at the Denius Student Center of the Florida Institute of Technology on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 from 8:00AM – 12Noon.
Companies interested in presenting must complete and submit an application no later than Monday, April 4, 2011, at 5:00 PM.
The May 17th summit is Posey’s third forum for local area entrepreneurs in Brevard County and his fourth entrepreneur summit overall. An Osceola Entrepreneur Summit is scheduled to be held on April 27th in Kissimmee.
Dragon floats down under three parachutes after its maiden flight to space. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX’s two Falcon 9 launches and the successful Dragon flight captured the public’s imagination in 2010. The company made major progress on two technologies last that are key to its future space plans. These achievements are highlighted in the FAA’s 2011 U.S. Commercial Space Transportation Developments and Concepts: Vehicles, Technologies, and Spaceports report. Excerpts from the document follow after the break, with my comments in italics.
AIA PR — The Aerospace Industries Association enrolled ten new full members along with eleven associate members in the first quarter of 2011 to reach its highest total membership in history. In the fifteen months since January 2010, AIA has grown 44 percent and has not lost a single full member in that period.
“Our explosive growth over the last year really comes as no surprise,†said AIA President and CEO Marion C. Blakey. “AIA is on the front lines protecting aerospace and defense business and helping to develop growth opportunities for its members. During tough economic and political times, we need to band together as an industry.â€
You can add another name to Richard Branson’s roster of celebritynauts. Former Highland Place Mobsters member and mega record producer Dallas Austin has a confirmed seat aboard SpaceShipTwo for a suborbital flight in 2013.Â
According to Wikipedia, Austin’s list of clients have included “Michael Jackson, TLC, Boyz II Men, Pink, Monica, Madonna, Gwen Stefani, Stacie Orrico, Another Bad Creation, Fishbone, Sugababes, Anastacia, Namie Amuro, Kim from the Real Housewives of Atlanta and McFly…Austin is also known for socially conscious productions such as TLC’s ‘Unpretty’ and ‘Damaged’ and more recently ‘Ugly’ for UK act Sugababes.”
