Virgin Galactic’s Mark Butler describes the Terminal Hangar Facility at Spaceport America following the runway dedication ceremony last Friday.
MOON EXPRESS PRESS RELEASE
Today, Moon Express Inc, a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company, announced its official entry into the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a $30 million competition that challenges space professionals and engineers from across the globe to build and launch to the Moon a privately funded spacecraft capable of completing a series of exploration and transmission tasks. Team MoonEx, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, is among 24 teams from a dozen countries that are competing for their share of the $30 million prize purse.
CSF PRESS RELEASE
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation strongly welcomes NASA’s announcement earlier this month that the space agency will purchase data generated by innovative lunar robotic missions being prepared by six commercial space companies in pursuit of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, through the space agency’s new $30.1 million Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program.
ASTRONAUT4HIRE PRESS RELEASE
For a limited time, Astronauts4Hire is offering a Sponsorship Special leading up to its inaugural mission testing the world’s first beer brewed specifically for drinking in space. During this promotion, sponsors contributing $1,000 or more will receive a shoulder logo on the flight suit worn by the Astronaut4Hire researcher during the historic flight. Sponsors of $5,000 or more will receive a logo on the chest of the flight suit and mention in all future press releases regarding the flight. With the high level of media attention expected, sponsors will gain extensive exposure to national and international audiences.
Congratulations to X PRIZE Founder Peter Diamandis, who has been awarded The Economist’s No Boundaries award as part of the weekly magazine’s 2010 Innovation Awards. Recipients were honored last week in London.
THE ECONOMIST PRESS RELEASE
Peter H. Diamandis, a Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and aerospace expert who is founder and chief executive of the X Prize Foundation, is awarded the ‘No Boundaries’ Economist Innovation Award today. Mr Diamandis has spurred innovation by offering prizes to encourage and inspire achievement by innovators in the aerospace, genomics and automotive industries since 2004.
Sir Richard Branson and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
It seems that Virgin Galactic has a decision to make about how it goes about competing in NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program:
“There’s about four companies that are seriously looking at [CCDev Phase 2],†[Richard] Branson said in an interview with Aviation Week. “Two of those companies we’re in discussions with about teaming up with. … Over the next month, we’re going to make a decision as to whether to team up with one of those two companies or go it alone, but we plan to be in orbital travel within the next few years.â€
The X Prize Foundation’s Will Pomerantz provides a review of the recent Google Lunar X Prize Team Summit on the Isle of Man.
A Boeing CST-100 crew module docks at a Bigelow Aerospace space station. (Credit: Boeing)
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA has issued an announcement seeking proposals from U. S. industry to further advance commercial crew space transportation concepts and mature the design and development of system elements, such as launch vehicles and spacecraft. Awards will result in funded Space Act Agreements.
Multiple awards are expected to be announced by March 2011 for terms of up to 14 months. Approximately $200 million total is expected to be available for awards under this announcement, but funding is dependent on the 2011 fiscal year appropriations from Congress. The deadline for submitting proposals is Dec. 13.
Planetary scientist Prof. John S. Lewis, who has lectured at the Center for Space Science and Applied Research and the Lunar Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science, will give a dinner talk titled, “Asia’s Road to the Moon,†at the Sheraton Sunnyvale Hotel on Saturday, Oct. 30.
The talk will focus on Asia’s rising space programs and potential cooperation with the United States and other nations. This will be the keynote address at the dinner for the Space Studies Institute’s Space Manufacturing 14: Critical Technologies for Space Settlement conference, which will be held from Oct. 29-31 in Silicon Valley.
Conference attendees and members of the public can purchase tickets to the dinner for $35 on the SSI website at https://ssi.org/2010-conference-space-manufacturing-14/2010-register/. The deadline for conference registration and dinner tickets is 5 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 26.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
NASA PRESS RELEASE
On October 16-21, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden led a small delegation to China. The following is a statement from the Administrator regarding his visit:
“On behalf of the NASA delegation that traveled to China, I want to express my appreciation to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, our hosts for my visit. Our delegation conducted a very comprehensive visit to Chinese human spaceflight related facilities including the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and conducted meetings with relevant senior officials in the Chinese government.
Don’t miss your last chance to sign up for the 14th SSI Space Manufacturing and Space Settlement Conference in Silicon Valley from Oct. 29-31. Registration for the conference will close at 5 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, Oct. 26. To attend, please sign up now at https://ssi.org/2010-conference-space-manufacturing-14/ The conference includes two days of sessions at the NASA Ames Conference Center and several events at the Sheraton Sunnyvale Hotel. Highlights include: “Moon, […]
Florida Today reports: SpaceX has pushed back the target date for its first NASA demonstration flight by 10 days, to Nov. 18. The planned launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will be the first in a NASA program testing the vehicles’ readiness to deliver cargo to the International Space Station….No reason was immediately given for the delay, which pushes the mission […]