ISRO PROGRAM UPDATE Indian Space Research Organisation successfully conducted the second static testing of its liquid core stage (L110) of Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk -III) for 200 seconds at its Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) test facility at Mahendragiri on September 8, 2010 at 15:50 hrs. L110 is one of the heaviest earth storable liquid stages ever developed by ISRO. L110 stage had two high pressure Vikas engines […]
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
NASA’s pioneering use of prize competitions and innovation challenges is a dramatic departure from government’s traditional “business as usual.”
The agency’s innovation and technology challenges include prizes that encourage independent teams to race to achieve bold goals — without any upfront government funding. NASA benefits from private sector investments many times greater than the cash value of prizes, and the agency only pays for results.
ROCKET CITY SPACE PIONEERS PRESS RELEASE
Sept. 7, 2010
Today, the Rocket City Space Pioneers – a group of Huntsville businesses, educational institutions and non-profit organizations – announced their 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. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Team Rocket City Space Pioneers is comprised of seven organizations and is among twenty-three teams from a dozen countries that are registered in the competition.
The Rocket City Space Pioneers, led by Huntsville-based company Dynetics and comprised of Huntsville partners Teledyne Brown Engineering, Andrews Space, Spaceflight Services, Draper Laboratory, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation, will compete for the Google Lunar X PRIZE with their lunar lander. Leading the team is Tim Pickens, Dynetics’ chief propulsion engineer. No stranger to space competition, Pickens was also the lead propulsion engineer for the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE winning SpaceShipOne team.
Boeing offers Isro tech help for 2016 manned space trip
The Times of India
The Indian Space Research Organisation has an offer too tempting to resist: Boeing has said it is ready to collaborate and offer technological know-how to Isro for its human space flight programme, scheduled tentatively for 2016….
In a letter to critics, Tennessee Rep. Bart Gordon says that the Obama Administration’s budget for NASA is as “unexecutable” as the Constellation program that Congress has been funding for the past five years.
“The hard reality is that the Administration has sent an unexecutable budget request to Congress, and we now have to make tough choices so that the nation can have a sustainable and balanced NASA program,” Gordon wrote in a letter to former NASA Ames Director Scott Hubbard.
In The Space Review this week… Building a foundation for commercial crew As the debate over commercial crew development continues in Washington, NASA and industry are taking initial steps on such efforts. Jeff Foust discusses some of the ongoing efforts and planning that continue despite political uncertainty. Halfway to the stars (atop piles of paper) For every mission that actually flies, many more never make it beyond the proposal stage. […]
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver
“Through the proposed budget, the President is encouraging us really think hard about where we want to be in a generation, which is the basic foundation of our budget request, not just the next five years. To move beyond our vehicle-driven approach to think in broader terms about the capabilities we need in order to do a wide range of things and serve a wider range of people — from other government users of space to our international partners, industry, academia and the private citizen….
The Xinhua news agency outlines China’s ambitious efforts to explore the moon during this decade, which will continue with the launch of the Chang’e-2 orbiter by the end of this year.
Anatoly Perminov
ROSCOSMOS PAO
On August 25, a meeting of Roscosmos Scientific and Engineering Board held a meeting at the premises of the Federal Space Agency. The agenda covered the issues linked with draft design of the mid-class rocket space system [Rus-M rocket] of new generation with high lifting capacity for Vostochny space port.
ISRO is preparing a major release of Chandrayaan-1 data within the next three months:
Voluminous scientific data, including rare images of the moon, from India’s maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 will be made public by the year-end.
Isle of Man firms ‘lead Euro space race’
BBC News
The Isle of Man has been ranked as one of the most likely nations to next get its flag on the moon.
The Copenhagen Post reports that a hairdryer that cost less than 100 krone ($17.29) was responsible for the failure of the Heat-1X/Tycho-Brahe rocket to lift off on Sunday.