The Asian Age reports on a recent Mach 3 test of India’s BrahMos cruise missile. However, India is hoping the BrahMos-II successor will do much more: The BrahMos could be a laggard when India will become the first country to have cruise missiles that can fly at hypersonic speeds of over 6,000 km per hour. As an agreement for their joint development will be signed with Russia during the visit […]
We recap SpaceUp DC 2010 and have a conversation about awesome space stuff.
ISRO to conduct key test for GSLV Mk III rocket next week
Brahmand.com
After a failed test six months ago, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be making a fresh attempt next week to conduct long-duration static test of a crucial liquid core stage for a new generation heavy rocket which is being developed.
This week on The Space Show… Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 7-8:30 PM PDT: Dan Adamo returns to further discuss on orbit propellant depots and Earth-Lunar departure points. Friday, September 10, 2010, 9:30-11 AM PDT: Berin Szoka returns to discuss not only internet freedom but expanding human civilization in space. Sunday, September 12, 2010, 12-1:30 PM PDT. We welcome back to the show Dr. Bryan Laubscher to update us on space […]
Artist's conception of Boeing's commercial crew module. (Credit: Boeing)
Space Access Society Update
by Henry Vanderbilt
The proposed new NASA space exploration policy looks as promising as anything we’ve seen come from those quarters for a long time. These reforms pass responsibility for basic space access to the US commercial sector, while refocusing NASA away from their ruinously inefficient in-house rocket development bureaucracy and back toward developing new technologies for future transportation and deep-space exploration. The new policy has potential to radically reduce the costs of basic orbital access, of routine space operations, and of deeper exploration too, vastly expanding our space development and future exploration possibilities.
A massive booster roars to life in Utah test, taking out the trash space station style, planning an asteroid mission and NASA mixes up fake vomit in the lab!
ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter
The Times of India has an interesting Q&A interview with U.R. Rao, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Space Sciences that chose the instruments for ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and lander. He explains why the U.S. and Europe have been shut out of this mission and describes the failures by its predecessor, Chandrayaan-1, that require a follow-up mission.
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver spoke on Aug. 20 at the 4th Annual U.S. Space and Rocket Center Hall of Fame Ceremony & Dinner in Huntsville. Garver touched upon the increasingly international nature of space exploration and the Obama Administration’s controversial efforts to rely upon commercial vendors for human flights into Earth orbit.
We are (we hope) on the cusp of achieving big things. A few companies (established and emerging) already have systems for transportation, many whose heritage is right here in Alabama. We will oversee these rockets to ensure that the highest possible safety standards are met. The U.S. has lost a large share of the commercial market. There is a growing market for launch services internationally, and by other U.S. government agencies and the private sector, both traditional markets and new ones. There is huge untapped potential for expanded markets, businesses, and jobs connected to launching cargo and eventually crew to orbit.
NASA Enlists Caddo Mills-Based Armadillo Aerospace For A Boost to Suborbital Space
Dallas Observer
Armadillo president John Carmack says the company has turned a profit in the last few years thanks to its contracts with NASA and with its pals at the Rocket Racing League. Most mentions of NASA among the Armadillo team, though, are laced with the hopeless sort of sighs you might hear from an Apple Store Genius on his smoke break. While they’re glad to take NASA’s money for any steps along the way to their space tourism future, they’re wary of NASA engineers whose ultimate responsibilities are to agency politics, not rockets….
(more…)
Asteroid Ida
‘Plymouth Rock’ Deep Space Asteroid Mission Idea Gains Ground
Space.com
This week, Josh Hopkins of Lockheed’s Human Spaceflight Advanced Programs will detail an early human mission to near-Earth asteroids using Orion spacecraft, at Space 2010, a conference being held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Bob Richards has written a blog post about his departure from Odyssey Moon, an Isle of Man-based competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize. It was a very challenging goal, we knew, to embark on a private sector effort to extend the powers of entrepreneurship and risk capital beyond our current economic sphere of Earth orbit. It is a goal that I remain firmly and completely committed to achieving. However, […]
Falcon 9 takes off on its first flight. (Credit: Chris Thompson SpaceX)
SpaceX Tweaking Falcon 9 Software for Upcoming Launch
Space News
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is making minor software modifications on its Falcon 9 medium-lift rocket in preparation for its second flight, now targeted for October, based on issues encountered during the vehicle’s successful debut in June.