The road to Spaceport America on its groundbreaking day - June 19, 2009 (Photo Credit: Lucinda Land)
Doña Ana County officials OK spaceport road-paving deal
Las Cruces Sun-News
Doña Ana County commissioners on Tuesday backed an arrangement aimed at paving a southern access road to Spaceport America.
Become risk-sharing partners with us, ISRO tells industry
The Hindu
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) wants the industry, which already accounts for 60 per cent of its budget, to become a risk-sharing partner as the country’s space programme gets bigger and into the fast-track.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 on the pad at Cape Canaveral. (Credit: Chris Thompson/SpaceX)
SpaceX is spending big bucks lobbying the government on behalf of its commercial launch business, The Birmingham News reports:
In the first six months of the year, SpaceX has paid Wexler & Walker about $90,000, records show.
Anatoly Perminov
All decisions made to start work on Vostochny space site 2011
ITAR-TASS
All necessary decisions are in place for launching the construction of the spaceport Vostochny in the Amur region in 2011, the head of the federal space agency (Roscosmos), Anatoly Perminov, said at a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council devoted to the sketch of a future high-capacity next-generation space rocket complex of middle-class for the spaceport Vostochny.
By my best calculation, director James Cameron’s PSA for NASA is roughly 31 seconds of “Avatar” footage coupled with another 37 seconds of information about the space agency and its Earth Sciences program.
I guess that’s not bad, actually.
A Boeing CST-100 crew module docks at Bigelow Aerospace's Sundancer space station. (Credit: Boeing)
FSU NEWS
The Florida State University will play a key role in a world-class consortium assembled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that joins academia, industry and government to address the present and future challenges of commercial space transportation.
The Press: Here TV show has an interesting interview with Pete Worden. The NASA Ames center director talks in a roundtable forum about space commercialization, the Kepler mission, and other topics. I don’t seem to be able to embed the videos, so here are a few highlights: “We’re on the verge of a revolution in space” because of commercial firms; The space agency is moving in a direction of supporting commercial […]
Dr. Alan Weston, director of programs at the NASA Ames Research Center, says space travel will become a commercial industry and Wichita could help lead the way.
Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia
Here’s an interesting quote from Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski which was included in a press release issued after Gov. Martin O’Malley toured the Wallops Flight Facility on Monday.
“Wallops Island Flight Facility is home to American innovation. I fought to keep jobs at the Wallops Flight Facility and I will continue to fight to create the jobs of the future. Today we can see our investment in innovation is paying off, as Wallops becomes the Southwest Airlines of space: a lower cost, safer way to launch.â€
The full press release after the break.
The lower section of Masten Space Systems' Brutus vehicle.
Masten Space Systems’ Ken Brown was kind enough to give me a tour of the company’s facility in Mojave on Saturday. Above is the first stage of the company’s Brutus vehicle, which will fly to an altitude of 100,000 feet beginning this Fall.
ASTROBOTIC PRESS RELEASE
Astrobotic Technology, a Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) spin-off company has announced that Caterpillar Inc. will be a sponsor its first robotic expedition to the lunar surface. The initial Astrobotic mission will revisit the Apollo 11 site in April 2013 with a five-foot tall, 160-lb. robot broadcasting 3D high-definition video. The mission will carry payloads to the Moon and convey the experience to the world via Internet video access.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA will hold a media teleconference Thursday, Aug. 26, at 1 p.m. EDT to discuss the Kepler spacecraft’s latest discovery about an intriguing planetary system.
