X PRIZE UPDATE

Today, the X PRIZE Foundation announced the official roster of 29 registered teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, an unprecedented competition to send a robot to the Moon that travels at least 500 meters and transmits video, images, and data back to the Earth.

This group of teams signifies this new era of exploration’s diverse and participatory nature as it includes a huge variety of groups ranging from non-profits to university consortia to billion dollar businesses representing 17 nations on four continents. The global competition, the largest in history, was announced in September 2007, with a winner projected by 2015.

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Promo video for Americans in Orbit 50, a project using the Gemini IR spacecraft that Space Operations is building for commercial use. Space Operations CEO Craig Russell is president of the AIO-50.

Eclipse capsule in orbit. Credit: Space Operations, Inc.

SPACE OPERATIONS PRESS RELEASE

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Feb. 17, 2011 — Space Operations, Inc. announced plans today to build a two-seat manned orbital spacecraft for commercial and government use. The company plans a test launch on February 20, 2012, with a regular flight schedule beginning in late 2012 or early 2013.

The Eclipse spacecraft will utilize the highly successful legacy Gemini technology that was developed by NASA to allow SOI to bring this product to market in a very short time frame.

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This remarkable photo was taken by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli from the ISS on 16 February 2011, just minutes after ATV Johannes Kepler lifted off on board an Ariane 5 from Kourou at 22:50 UTC. It shows the rising exhaust trail of Ariane, still in its initial vertical trajectory. The trail can be seen as a thin streak framed just beneath the Station's remote manipulator arm. Credits: ESA/ NASA

ESA MISSION UPDATE
Feb. 17, 2011

Following a spectacular launch on 16 February, Europe’s space freighter is now in its planned orbit. Mission controllers are preparing to match its trajectory with that of the International Space Station, where it will dock seven days from now.

After a one-day launch delay, ESA’s next Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Johannes Kepler, lifted-off yesterday on an Ariane 5 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 21:50 GMT. A few minutes later, the vessel attained its initial operational orbit at 260 km altitude. Mission controllers immediately began checking out the spacecraft and ensuring that programmed sequences – including deployment of ATV’s four large solar wings – had correctly taken place.

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The lack of crime on Mars could result in NASA getting less money this year.

NASA’s $3.131 billion budget for cross-agency support would be reduced by $298 million to $2.833 billion in order to keep 1,300 cops on the street under an amendment approved by the full House on Wednesday. In remarks on the House floor, the amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), said:

Now, do I like the idea we have to take it from NASA space exploration? I don’t know any of the crime statistics on Mars, and I’m interested, but it’s a bad choice. If any of you like space exploration, so do I. In a way, I’m playing the game too. I’m taking from one place to give to another. But I do believe it’s in the interest of all of us to try to set these priorities straight.

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International Space Station

NASA PROGRAM UPDATE

WASHINGTON — NASA released a final version of a cooperative agreement notice (CAN) for an independent, nonprofit research management organization to stimulate, develop and manage U.S. use of the International Space Station National Laboratory. The agreement pertains to operations other than NASA’s exploration missions.

The agency will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 22, to discuss the release.

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In The Space Review this week…. Commercial crew and NASA’s tipping point The release this week of a new budget proposal will again stoke debate about NASA policy, including its commercial crew development plans. Jeff Foust reports that agency officials and company officials alike are seeing commercial crew as both increasingly likely and critical to NASA’s future. American leadership In debates about space policy, the term “American leadership” is often […]

Artist conception of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in orbit

SPACE FOUNDATION RELEASE

The Space Foundation has chosen two companies to receive 2011 Space Achievement Awards, in recognition of their extraordinary accomplishments in space.

SpaceX is being lauded for becoming the first commercial company to re-enter a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, and Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) is being recognized for its unique use of space to aid communications and save lives during natural disasters and emergencies.

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Following a measurement anomaly in the liquid oxygen propellant tank of the cryogenic main stage for Flight 200’s Ariane 5 launcher, yesterday’s countdown was stopped. The new launch time has been set for this evening at 22:50:55 CET. Watch here NASA Television coverage Wednesday would begin at 4:30 p.m. EST for a liftoff at 4:50:55 p.m. Watch here

CSF PRESS RELEASE

Washington, D.C., Tuesday, February 15, 2011 – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation today welcomed the strong support for space technology investments in the new NASA FY2012 proposed budget, including such high-profile programs as Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research, Centennial Challenges, and NASA’s commercial parabolic flight program.

CSF President Bretton Alexander stated, “Consistent with the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, these investments in space technology R&D represent a renewed focus by NASA on innovation, which is the seed corn of American economic competitiveness. Between 2005 and 2009, NASA’s technology programs were cut more than 50%, and we applaud NASA’s plan to reverse this decline.  Robust funding for technology R&D will help ensure that the United States remains a global leader in space.”
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Spaceport chair has long had eyes on the heavens Las Cruces Sun-News The newly selected chairman of Spaceport America’s governing body is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force with a background in space technology. Appointee Richard Holdridge, 56, retired in December 1997 from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and moved back to his hometown of Deming. He said he decided to retire to spend […]

Gary Locke

A scheduled meeting between ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan and U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was canceled by the Indian side due to the ongoing Devas Multimedia controversy:

The scheduled meeting between Locke and Radhakrishnan was to take place in Bangalore last week where the commerce secretary also visited the air show. With Isro finally out of the US “entities list”, the meeting was to explore commercial cooperation including satellite launches and other applications.

But with Isro’s commercial arm Antrix precisely in the middle of a controversy surrounding allegations that it sold space-segment airwaves cheaply to Devas Multimedia and the Prime Minister’s Office under opposition fire, Radhakrishnan did not keep his date with Locke. He was busy putting together the government’s defence….

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