The Space Access Society has issued the following call to action urging commercial space supporters to oppose the House version of NASA’s budget. “The House version is extremely bad. HR.5781 is essentially a blueprint for the destruction of NASA human space exploration in the name of saving it,” the update reads.
SPACEX PRESS RELEASE
Today SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) announced their Dragon spacecraft has successfully completed a high altitude drop test – meeting 100% of test objectives. This is the last in a series of tests to validate parachute deployment systems and recovery operations before the craft’s first launch.
The road to Spaceport America on its groundbreaking day - June 19, 2009 (Photo Credit: Lucinda Land)
Vote on spaceport road likely today
Las Cruces Sun-News
Spaceport officials are expected to vote today on what they say is a key step toward paving a southern road to Spaceport America.
XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle
CU-BOULDER PRESS RELEASE
A team of eight institutions that includes the University of Colorado at Boulder has been selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to participate in a newly formed Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation.
Florida Today has some clarification of Space Florida’s decision earlier this week to put up $2 million in matching funds for the new FAA Center of Excellence Commercial Space Transportation, which will be headquartered at New Mexico State University.
Florida Tech is a core member of a partnership that the Federal Aviation Administration this week named to lead a new research center focused on commercial spaceflight.
The first "captive carry" and flight of VSS Enterprise or SpaceShip II over Mojave, California Monday March 22,2010. The center mounted spaceship is attached to the "mothership" WhiteKnight II for a series of flight tests prior to its first drop test later in the year.
The Associated Press and MSNBC have additional details on WhiteKnightTwo’s accident on Thursday:
The left main landing gear on Virgin Galactic’s space tourism jet collapsed as it landed after a test flight in the Mojave Desert Thursday, federal aviation authorities said. No injuries were reported…
Artists conception of WhiteKnightTwo and the SpaceShipTwo space tourism vehicle. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
Kiwis sign up for space
Eastern Courier
Seven Kiwis have paid $200,000 each to book tickets on Sir Richard Branson’s proposed commercial flights into space.
PLANETARY SOCIETY PRESS RELEASE
The Planetary Society has sent a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Minority Members of the four subcommittees currently considering the NASA budget and the Administration’s plan for human space exploration. The letter states: “We are concerned about omissions and a lack of coherence in the four committees’ versions of this bill.â€
Falcon hypersonic technology vehicle (HTV)
Global Security Newswire reports that defense officials are close to finishing their investigation into the failure of the HTV-2 hypersonic vehicle on April 22:
A Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency review board “is in the last phases of its internal review” of the Hypersonic Test Vehicle-2’s maiden flight test and should report out in “the next month or so,” Zachary Lemnios said at a breakfast session with reporters this morning. “When that review board finishes their work, we’ll come out with a statement on exactly what’s happened.”
Blowing work to metro New Orleans: An editorial
The Times-Picayune
A major new tenant for the Michoud Assembly Facility could mean 600 new jobs to help replace the thousands that have been lost as the space shuttle program winds down, and an influx of well-paying jobs over the next decade would be encouraging on its own.
Scott Hubbard of Stanford University’s Astronautics and Aeronautics Department is on a team of researchers working to avoid collisions between airplanes and space vehicles.
An update from Scaled Composites in Mojave: A minor incident occurred on the runway at Mojave airport this morning, which involved a mechanical problem with the left hand-side landing gear of WhiteKnightTwo. No injuries were sustained and the incident did not involve the Spaceship which was not attached to WhiteKnightTwo. WhiteKnightTwo was on its 37th test flight, and has been flying since December 2008. Further information will be posted in […]
