XTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES PRESS RELEASE
July 7, 2010
Xtraordinary Adventures has entered into a marketing agreement with RocketShip Tours to begin taking reservations on the LYNX, XCOR Aerospace’s newest rocket propelled suborbital vehicle. Current plans call for first flights to begin in late 2011 after a successful series of test flights earlier in the year. The venue for the initial scheduled flights is the Air & Space Port in Mojave, California, home of XCOR Aerospace.
SpaceShipTwo made its first flight with a crew aboard yesterday. The space plane stayed attached to the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft throughout the 6-hour flight. The flight summary published on the Scaled Composites website states: Pilots in SS2 evaluated the systems and procedures for the upcoming glide flights. A simulated SS2 mission was flown from release down to low approach. Performed low approach then full stop on Runway 30. Flight WK2 […]
Eric Berger at the Houston Chronicle has a Q&A with NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver about the Senate bill. An excerpt: What do you think about the Senate bill? It is something we feel is very strongly aligned with the milestones the President laid out, accelerating the beyond low-Earth orbit capability. Can I take that to mean the White House is likely to support this bill in large part? We […]
Florida Senator Bill Nelson
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s funding bill for NASA seems to have pleased very few people in the state he represents, with some saying it removes valuable programs from Florida while other complaining that it doesn’t go far enough in saving jobs.
Sunshine State News explains:
The Nelson-backed compromise legislation would accelerate development of a heavy-lift rocket — a move that Space Coast officials applauded Thursday — but it pulls $13.8 billion from projects that would have benefited Florida….
Shelby praises NASA budget compromise announced today The Huntsville Times U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, called a proposed NASA budget compromise announced in Washington today “a clear path forward for the agency” and a “good first step” toward resolving a fight over NASA’s future. “This proposed authorization bill provides a significant new direction for NASA,” said Shelby. “It wisely rejects the administration’s outright cancellation of NASA’s human space flight program, […]
There are a number of conclusions that can be drawn from this week’s Senate vote on NASA:
1. We’re stuck with the space shuttle forever. Although the orbiter fleet will be retired, the system’s legacy will live on through the shuttle-derived heavy-lift vehicle (SD-HLV) that Congress is ordering NASA to start building immediately.
CSE STATEMENT
The Coalition for Space Exploration (Coalition) commends the action taken today by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to authorize a nonpartisan spending plan for NASA.
CSF PRESS RELEASE
Following today’s executive session of the Senate Commerce Committee, the President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Bretton Alexander, stated, “Thanks to Senators Warner, Boxer, Udall, and Brownback, American industry won a victory today. But this legislation must be improved so that we create more sustainable American jobs, instead of exporting jobs to Russia. This compromise committee bill represents progress from the original draft, but there is still a long way to go to get to where the Augustine Committee said NASA needs to be.â€
Florida Senator Bill Nelson
SEN. BILL NELSON STATEMENT
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation today passed a bipartisan spending plan for NASA that extends the space shuttle program well into next year and advances the date for future human flight in a newly developed spacecraft to 2016 from a 2025 target-date initially proposed by the administration.
The Senate bill, in substantial part the work of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, lays out a direction for NASA for at least the next three years. Nelson, a Democrat, is chairman of the Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee and a former space shuttle crew member.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today approved NASA funding legislation cosponsored by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the Committee. The bill was sponsored by Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and cosponsored by Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), David Vitter and George LeMieux (R-Fla.).
Statement by Bob Mitchell
President, Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership
Sen. Hutchison leads by example
Today’s announcement by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in regard to a NASA reauthorization bill is the best news we’ve had in the last six months. It lays out a blueprint for NASA’s future. While the bill may not be seen as perfect, it certainly reestablishes the Johnson Space Center’s role in human space exploration.
Spate of Hypersonic Vehicle Tests Fuels Global Strike Debate
National Defense Magazine
The military’s reusable space plane, the X-37B, and its classified payload lifted off in April only one day after the maiden flight of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 suborbital glider. It flew nine minutes before operators lost its signal and were forced to abort the mission.
