The lower stage of Masten Space Systems' Brutus vehicle.
MASTEN PRESS RELEASE
Masten Space Systems, a leader in vertical take off, vertical landing (VTVL) rocket vehicles, announced a contract today with NASA’s new Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) program. The initial contract is for four flights of test payloads on Xaero, Masten’s next-generation vehicle currently in assembly.
CSF PRESS RELEASE
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to congratulate two of its member companies, Armadillo Aerospace and Masten Space Systems, for winning an initial NASA test flight contract as part of the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) Program. The first round of the program, an open competition for small businesses, was formally kicked off by NASA earlier this year with a Request for Quotations for commercial reusable suborbital flight services.
Masten Space Systems' Xombie rocket.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA’s Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program (CRuSR) has awarded a total of approximately $475,000 to Armadillo Aerospace of Rockwall, Texas and Masten Space Systems of Mojave, Calif. The awards will allow the two companies to perform test flights of their experimental vehicles near the edge of space.
Space Tourism Sector A Good Opportunity For Insurance Firms
Space Travel
As space tourism matures, it holds tremendous opportunity for insurance companies to offer risk coverage to those on-board, similar to what they do for passengers of airlines, industry officials said.
Next stop space for this cosmic ray detector, Discovery gets ready to rollover for its final flight to space, reflections on a successful spacewalk, Curiosity extends its reach, Viking memories, new solar systems, a cosmic volcano, and Earth in fast-forward.
Aviation Week reports: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has requested Oct. 23 on the 45th Space Wing’s calendar for launch of its second Falcon 9 rocket, which will aim to place a Dragon cargo capsule into orbit. The flight is the first of up to three launches planned under SpaceX’s $278-million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract with NASA, which is intended to help pay for the rocket and capsule’s design, […]
International Space Station
Japan to stay in ISS project past 2016, launch Hayabusa 2 probe in 2014
Mainichi Daily News
The Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy, headed by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has decided Japan will continue to participate in the International Space Station (ISS) project through 2016 and beyond.
In The Space Review this week… DM-2 and the future of SRBs This week NASA and ATK are scheduled to perform the second test-firing of a five-segment solid rocket motor originally developed for the Ares 1. Jeff Foust describes the planning for the test and its significance given the uncertain future of NASA’s human spaceflight plans. Dancing in the dark: The orbital rendezvous of SJ-12 and SJ-06F Earlier this month […]
Monday and Tuesday: No show due to the AIAA Space 2010 Conference. Friday,Sept. 3, 2010. This program will consist of taped interviews from the Space 2010 Conference. When you see the programs on The Space Show website, they are ready for play and podcasting. Some taped interviews may be uploaded for a Saturday program. Please check the website for further details should this be necessary. Sunday, Sept. 5, 2010, 12-1:30 […]
X PRIZE FOUNDATION
Helping to raise funds for the X PRIZE Foundation (www.xprize.org), “Avatar” Producer/Director, James Cameron, will participate as the honored guest aboard an extraordinary ZERO-G Experience taking off from Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, October 9, 2010. Additional X PRIZE Board Members and special guests have purchased seats to participate in this special event. Three available seats for this once-in-a-lifetime adventure will be auctioned on eBay to the general public beginning Tuesday, August 31, 2010 and ending Friday, September 3, 2010. To find out more information about the auction and to bid on seats, visit https://eBay.com/cameron.
Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia
Virginia Business has an interesting story on the commercial launch potential of Wallops Island in Virginia, which includes possible human launches aboard Atlas V by Bigelow Aerospace:
Over the next five years, the company will make eight launches of the Taurus II from Wallops, as part of a $1.9 billion contract Orbital has with NASA to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
The Orbital deal is nice, and there are even bigger prizes out there. The decades-long effort to let the private sector handle much of what NASA has traditionally done is gaining momentum. The Obama administration gave the idea a big push this year in its NASA budget proposal, which calls for outsourcing to private companies the delivery of supplies — and maybe some day crew members — to the space station.
