SpaceShipTwo glides downward on its first test flight. (Photo: Mark Greenberg)

Aviation Week reports that SpaceShipTwo testing is going ahead smoothly, with Scaled Composites officials predicting an aggressive flight test schedule for 2011 and possible suborbital operations the following year:

“Testing has been going quite a bit better than we’d originally hoped, and we’ve been able to make glide flights ahead of what we’d anticipated in terms of flight-to-flight turn-around time,” says Pete Siebold, Scaled director of flight operations. The Virgin Galactic program therefore remains on target to becoming the world’s first commercial space line, with routine suborbital operations from Spaceport America, N.M., as early as 2012.

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In this latest video from Mars500, Diego and Romain show some scientific experiments the crew is working with. The daily routine in the isolation includes not only joking and counting the days passing, but also plenty of serious work with science and maintenance of the facility. Despite the monotonous life, the spirit is still high – as this video shows!

X PRIZE PRESS RELEASE

Today, NASA announced that it purchased data related to innovative lunar missions from three private firms. All three contracts, valued at $500,000 each, were awarded to teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE: Astrobotic Technology Inc of Pittsburgh, PA; Moon Express Inc. of Mountain View, CA; and the Rocket City Space Pioneers (through their team member Dynetics Inc.) of Hunstville, AL. The contracts mark the first of several through NASA’s $30 million Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data project, managed by the Johnson Space Center near Houston, TX.

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NASA YEAR-END UPDATE

NASA in 2010 set a new course for human spaceflight, helped rewrite science textbooks, redefined our understanding of Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor, put the finishing touches on one of the world’s greatest engineering marvels, made major contributions to life on Earth, and turned its sights toward the next era of exploration.

“This year, NASA’s work made headlines around the world,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “More importantly, it enlarged our understanding of the universe and our home planet, inspired people, and opened new frontiers for our dreams and aspirations.”

“NASA achievements this year across the spectrum — from science, to aeronautics, education and human spaceflight – provided incredible value to our nation,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. “We continue to build upon our rich history, taking on new challenges and doing the things that no one else can do — all for the benefit of humanity.”

The following are some of NASA’s top stories for the past calendar year:

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The Xaero vehicle during assembly November 2010. (Credit: Masten Space Systems)

NASA’s Office of Chief Technologist has published detailed information about suborbital vehicles that will be available beginning in 2011 for researchers to conduct microgravity experiments. The vehicles are being built by Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR.

Today we will look at Masten Space Systems’ Xaero and Xogdor vehicles. The Mojave, Calif.-based company is expected to make its first Xaero test flight for NASA’s Commercial Reusable Commercial Research (CRuSR) program in January and to begin commercial operations sometime later in the year.

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NASA ANNOUNCEMENT

NASA is seeking proposals from researchers interested in testing new technologies during suborbital flights. The agency also is requesting information from commercial suborbital reusable launch vehicle providers and commercial payload integrators about carrying the technology payloads.

The selected payloads will fly on aircraft that provide parabolic flight trajectories and on suborbital reusable launch vehicles capable of flying to altitudes above 62 miles. The flights will expose the payloads to reduced gravity and near-zero gravity environments.

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DYNETICS PRESS RELEASE

Dynetics, corporate team leader for the Rocket City Space Pioneers (RCSP), the Huntsville-based Google Lunar X PRIZE team, is one of only three organizations selected to supply flight component test data to NASA through its Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data contract. In October, NASA’s Johnson Space Center made the contract award to six teams, including Dynetics (RCSP), out of 20 total teams competing for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. The ILDD teams will provide data to NASA to enable the development of future human and robotic lander vehicles and exploration systems.

Of the six selected for the original contract, three were down-selected for this first task order, which will allow RCSP to provide NASA with critical data from the hot fire test of a candidate rocket engine system and lunar rover system.

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ASTROBOTIC PRESS RELEASE

NASA has awarded the initial half-million-dollar task order from a $10 million NASA contract to Astrobotic Technology for a robotic expedition to the Moon.

“The amazingly short turnaround between proposal and award are a testament to NASA’s support for lunar commerce companies like ours,” said Dr. William “Red” Whittaker, chairman of Astrobotic Technology.

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ROSCOSMOS PAO In accordance with the Resolution of the French President, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov is awarded with Honored Legion Order of the Republic of France for his outstanding contribution into the Soyuz and Guiana Space Center project. The European Space Agency (ESA) set up the program “Soyuz at the Guiana Space Center (CSG)” to bolster collaboration with Russia on launch vehicles. The program is organized as follows: ESA is […]

Moon Shadows A total lunar eclipse is seen as the full moon is shadowed by the Earth on the arrival of the winter solstice, Tuesday, December 21, 2010 in Arlington, VA. The eclipse lasted about three hours and twenty-eight minutes. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth lines up directly between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun’s rays and casting a shadow on the moon. As the moon […]

JAXA MISSION UPDATE Dec. 16, 2010 On December 16, JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. conducted a cryogenic test of the H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 2 (H-IIB F2) at the Tanegashima Space Center. The launch vehicle and the ground system were connected for the test and all the launch operation procedures just prior to ignition were simulated in the same manner as on the launch day. As a result, no […]

Spacevidcast News: A new bill to protect NewSpace companies, Nexus S in Near Space, a new master plan for the KSC Visitor Complex with a space shuttle orbiter home design, iPods in space, Virgin Galactic’s plans to go into orbit, shuttle fueling tests on Friday, and launch costs are going up, not down.