XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle

I’ve been hearing some good thing out of Mojave about XCOR. It seems that most of the funding is in place, the rest will soon be, and that work is coming along nicely on building the first test flight vehicle which the company hopes to fly by the end of the year.

A press release for the upcoming  Global Space & Satellite Forum (GSSF) in Abu Dhabi provides some additional details:

XCOR anticipates commercial flights in the US to start in late 2012, with production Lynx vehicles flying internationally by 2014. XCOR’s COO, Andrew Nelson said that the company continues to develop and produce safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies.

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GSLV Mark III engine test (Photo: ISRO)

Boeing might be able to help India to master composite cryogenic fuel tanks, a crucial rocket technology essential to the nation’s ambitious space ambitions, a company official said.

Vivek Lall, who is Boeing’s Defence, Space and Security vice president in India, said the American aerospace giant and ISRO are discussing cooperation in “launch escape system (LES), vehicle health monitoring system and abort triggers (VHMSAT), life support system, crew accommodations and other areas such as reusable space systems and composite cryogenic tanks.”

These technologies are crucial for India’s nascent human spaceflight program, which hopes to launch crews into space around 2016-17. Cryogenic engine technology is also key to India entering the international satellite launch industry with its GSLV rocket.

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Russia and the United Kingdom are planning a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space. The events include: a conference in London; lectures, exhibitions, cultural events; the unveiling of a Gagarin statue in London; and the implementation of a joint experiment on board the International Space Station.

Russian and British officials met in Moscow on Tuesday to formally open the UK-Russian Year of Space 2011 program. The group issued a joint statement in the names of Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov and UK Space Agency Acting Chief Executive David Williams.

The program comes amidst efforts to deepen cooperation between the UK and Russia in space. The UKSA was recently formed to raise the country’s profile in space and better coordinate its space activities.

A list of UK and Russian events is shown after the break.

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NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver is given a tour of the Bigelow Aerospace facilities by the company's President Robert Bigelow on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011, in Las Vegas. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

NASA has recommended that Bigelow Aerospace be granted a license to market some of its patented inflatable space habitat technology, according to a notice published in the Federal Registrar.

NASA hereby gives notice of its intent to grant a partially exclusive license in the United States to practice the invention described and claimed in United States Patent 7,509,774 (issued March 31, 2009) and NASA Case No. MSC 24201-1, entitled “Apparatus For Integrating A Rigid Structure Into A Flexible Wall Of An Inflatable Structure” to Bigelow Aerospace, having its principal place of business in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

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A Boeing CST-100 crew module docks at a Bigelow Aerospace space station. (Credit: Boeing)

Space News is reporting that the competition for $200 million in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) funding is down to at least seven companies:

• ATK
• Blue Origin
• Boeing
• Orbital Sciences Corporation
• Sierra Nevada Corporation
• Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)
• United Launch Alliance (ULA).

Citing industry sources, the publication says that representatives from the companies were invited to Johnson Space Center in Houston earlier this month to discuss their proposals. NASA plans to award funds next month contingent on Congressional action on its budget.

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SFF PRESS RELEASE

On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, the TEDxMidTownNY headline speaker will be Tom Shelley, Vice President of Space Adventures, Ltd., the only company providing human space missions to the world marketplace. He will provide an “Overview of the Human Spaceflight Training Market.” Tom will share his insights and discuss developments in commercial space transportation and other related industries.

The second speaker for this event will be Noah Zerkin, Research Engineer in the Neurology Department at the Human Aerospace Lab at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Noah designs and fabricates prototype sensor modules for automated mobile neurovestibular evaluation of human subjects who have spent extended periods in microgravity (i.e. at the International Space Station). Noah is also the inventor and developer of the Zerkin Glove, a low cost glove for interacting with virtual objects in an augmented environment, and the author of Augmentation featuring his views on the coming AR revolution.

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A P3 Navy aircraft with Hangar One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. (Copyright 2008: Douglas Messier)

NASA Ames will assume management of a new Emerging Commercial Space Office that would be created under space agency’s proposed FY 2012 budget, officials said today.

During a media round table this morning with Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, Ames Director Pete Worden said the office would focus on spurring the development of new space technologies that are not covered by other NASA and FAA commercial space centers. The office’s activities would include working with Google Lunar X Prize competitors, adapting smart phones and other off-the-shelf technologies for use in satellites, transferring NASA technology and knowledge to the private sector, and related activities.
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This week in The Space Review…. Taking the initiative: SLI and the next generation While there’s been a recent surge in interest in reusable spacecraft, including both capsules and winged vehicles, work on reusable launch vehicles has languished. Stewart Money argues that it’s time to revisit making launch vehicles at least partially reusable. When the Sun sneezes Last week the Sun produced the most powerful solar flare in four years, […]

We’ve got a busy couple of weeks ahead in terms of American launches. The schedule: Glory Date: Wednesday, Feb. 23 Time: 5:09 a.m. EST Location: Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Coverage: https://www.nasa.gov/ntv (3:30 a.m. EST start) NASA’s Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth’s climate. Both aerosols and solar energy influence the planet’s energy budget – the amount […]

This week on The Space Show…. Monday, Feb. 21, 2011 , 2-3:30 PM PST: We welcome back Dr. Eligar Sadeh to discuss Astropolitics and the special issue focusing on National Space Strategy. Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011, 7-8:30 PM PST: We welcome back Dr. John Brandenburg, author of the new book “Life and Death On Mars: The New Mars Synthesis.” Dr. Brandenburg is a plasma physicist at Orbital Technologies in Madison […]

Last week, the X PRIZE Foundation finalized its roster for the Google Lunar X Prize Competition: 29 teams representing 17 countries on four continents, including seven newly announced competitors.

But how many of them have an actual shot of winning?

Three.

Yep, barely 10 percent of the total. Or so says Bob Richards.
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RepRap v.2 'Mendel' open-source FDM 3D printer. Credit: CharlesC

I’ve talked a little bit in this space about 3-D digital printing (here, here and here). It’s a fascinating technology: a device whose output is not a flat sheet of paper with ink but an actual 3-D product composed of materials printed out in layers. Using raw materials and relatively inexpensive equipment, you can create new parts and components on site to exact specifications without having to ship brand new spare parts from distance manufacturing plants.

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