The Space Transportation session from the SSI Space Manufacturing Conference held last month at NASA Ames Conference Center.

Masten's Xombie vehicle

Masten Space Systems and Space Florida announced today the signing of a Letter of Intent to explore performing demonstration launches of a Masten suborbital reusable launch vehicle from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

“We have been looking at Florida as a launch option for some time now,” stated Masten Founder and CEO Dave Masten. “We are excited to begin the process of determining if Launch Complex 36 is a good location for our flight operations, and hope to attempt a demonstration launch sometime in 2011.”

(more…)

The Space Show schedule for Thanksgiving week… Monday, November 22 , 2010, 2-3:30 PM PST. We welcome Dr. Steven Moore and Dr. Valentina Dilda to discuss their National Space Biomedical Research work in the area of using trickery on the brain to induce realistic spaceflight effects. Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 7-8:30 PM PST: We welcome back Chris Stott to discuss ManSat, the Isle of Man, updates with space law and […]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy A report on space tourism from MSNBC.

The first stage of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II vehicle is shipped out from Yuzhnoye design bureau in Ukraine. (Credt: Yuzhnoye)

After the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, newly independent Ukraine was left with some significant space assets from which to build  a national program. Ukrainian companies build the Zenit, Cyclone and Dnepr launch vehicles that are used for satellite delivery. The nation also recently shipped the first stage for Orbital Sciences Corporation’s new Taurus II rocket.  Ukrainian companies contribute to the construction of Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles, which ferry crews and supplies to the International Space Station. Ukraine also has the capability of building satellites and defense systems and has ground receiving stations.

The National Space Agency of Ukraine under Dr. Yuriy Alekseyev oversees the country’s space efforts.  Although overshadowed by its larger Russian counterpart, Roscosmos,  the NSAU is building on its Soviet-era foundation in an effort to become a force in international space.  The agency has continued to move forward despite funding difficulties, a global recession, and the bankruptcy of the Sea Launch consortium that uses the Zenit rocket. The nation, whose commercial space industry totaled $254 million in 2009, remains heavily dependent upon the Russian market although it is making major efforts at increasing its international cooperation and standing.

(more…)

Absent their vertical tails, the two X-34 aircraft were convoyed from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to the north gate of Edwards Air Force Base via Rosamond Boulevard Tuesday morning, and then overnight on Highway 58 to the Mojave Air and Spaceport Wednesday. (Credit: NASA Dryden/Tony Landis)

NASA PROGRAM UPDATE

The two X-34 hypersonic research aircraft developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. to serve as flight demonstrators for a NASA rocket engine technology development program in the mid-1990s were transported overland via truck from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to the Mojave Air and Spaceport Nov. 16-17. The two technology demonstrators will be stored temporarily at a hangar operated by the National Test Pilot School while undergoing inspections by Orbital Sciences personnel to determine if they are viable for flight.

(more…)

The Roscosmos website features a very interesting news item about a Russian plan to use nanosats to help predict earthquakes.

RIA Novosti quotes Russian Space Systems company director Yury Urlichich as saying that an “earthquake precursor monitoring system” that would include a constellation of nanosats to monitor “special vibrations in the ionosphere [that] can be used to detect the quake.”

Although the article doesn’t say so explicitly, the program appears to be part of the international global natural and industrial emergency aerospace monitoring system (IGMAS) that Russian officials promoted during a heads of space agencies summit in Washington last week. IGMAS program manager and Director of Space Systems R&D Valery Menschikov made a presentation about the system during the gathering, which was sponsored by the  International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

(more…)

NASA MISSION UPDATE

The EPOXI mission’s recent encounter with comet Hartley 2 provided the first images clear enough for scientists to link jets of dust and gas with specific surface features. NASA and other scientists have begun to analyze the images.

The EPOXI mission spacecraft revealed a cometary snow storm created by carbon dioxide jets spewing out tons of golf-ball to basketball-sized fluffy ice particles from the peanut-shaped comet’s rocky ends. At the same time, a different process was causing water vapor to escape from the comet’s smooth mid-section. This information sheds new light on the nature of comets and even planets.

(more…)

Kenji Williams performs Bella Gaia live on the lawn at NASA Ames Research Center prior to the LCROSS spacecraft striking the moon on Oct. 9, 2009. This was at about 2 in the morning in front of a group of people camped out to watch the early morning collision.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH PRESS RELEASE
Nov. 18, 2010

Members of the Utah congressional delegation met today with NASA officials at Sen. Orrin Hatch’s office to press the space agency to fully implement the 2010 NASA Authorization Act.

Hatch, Sen. Bob Bennett and Reps. Rob Bishop and Jim Matheson met with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Deputy Administrator Lori Garver to ensure that they are on board with complying with the law, which outlines payload requirements for a heavy-lift space system that, experts agree, can only be realistically met by solid rocket motors like the ones ATK manufactures in northern Utah.

(more…)

(more…)

Space News has obtained the transcript of an all-hands meeting that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden held at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville this week. Bolden covered a range of topics, including his recent trip to China. The most interesting remarks on China included the following:

“My final night there, I met with the big head of their human space flight program…He introduced the conversation and he said they’re going to be very candid. We don’t need you. We don’t need the United States, and you don’t need us. But the potential, if we choose to work together, is incredible. I thought that spoke volumes. Very, very candid. And they don’t. They don’t need us,and we don’t need them.”

Bolden’s full remarks concerning China are reproduced after the break. Space News‘ in-depth story about U.S.-Chinese cooperation is here.

(more…)