The asteroid Lutetia during a flyby by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft. (Credits: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)
Animation showing the Rosetta’s approach to Lutetia.
(Credits: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)
More pictures and the full story after the break.
Five months into the debate over the Obama Administration’s plans for NASA, some people in Huntsville seem to be finally grasping that their area can actually play a major role in commercial human spaceflight industry. And the timing is quite curious.
WHNT News reports:
Former Congressman Bud Cramer says commercial space efforts are already underway in Huntsville at Boeing and the United Launch Alliance plant in Decatur.
“There’s a role for commercial space, and we’re not at war with that. Commercial space employers are all around us here, and more are interested in coming here, but we’ve got to be careful that we don’t turn over human space exploration strictly to commercial space,” said Cramer…
Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner!
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
Commemorating 37 years of successful tank deliveries, NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company held a ceremony on Thursday, July 8, at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to rollout the final external tank for the last space shuttle flight.
The last external tank scheduled to fly on a shuttle mission was completed on June 25 by Lockheed Martin workers at Michoud. The tank, designated ET-138, will travel on a wheeled transporter one mile to the Michoud barge dock. It will be accompanied by the Storyville Stompers, a traditional area brass band, and hundreds of handkerchief-waving employees in typical New Orleans fashion and spirit during the ceremony. ET-138 will then travel on a 900-mile sea journey to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will support shuttle Endeavour’s STS-134 launch.
NASA's Orion spacecraft
Details are emerging on Florida Sen. Bill Nelson’s efforts to create a compromise space plan for NASA. Some of what Florida Today is reporting is in line with the Obama Administration’s proposal. Other parts are not:
Faster development of a heavy-lift launch vehicle to begin in 2011 instead of 2015. While saying it was not the committee’s place to design rockets, Nelson said the giant launcher — capable of lifting at least 75 metric tons — should be largely derived from shuttle systems and likely would use solid rocket boosters, like the Constellation program’s Ares I and Ares V rockets.
Eee-gads!
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Italy Plays Lead Role In Launcher Initiatives
Aviation Week
After years of studying the feasibility of building a homegrown atmospheric reentry capability, Europe is preparing to demonstrate initial advanced concepts.
GSLV Mark III engine test (Photo: ISRO)
India’s first indigenous cryogenic stage failed 2.2 seconds after its ignition due to a turbo pump failure, according to an analysis conducted by ISRO.
The failure occurred during the flight of the GSLV-D3 vehicle on April 15. The cryogenic engine was on the third stage of the rocket, which was carrying a communication satellite. The vehicle fell into the Bay of Bengal.
ISRO has been working on cryogenic engine technology for about 17 years. Officials view it as a key technology for the nation to enter into the upper ranks of the world’s space powers.
GM PROGRAM UPDATE
The countdown continues as General Motors and NASA engineers prepare Robonaut 2 for its planned fall mission to the International Space Station aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
SPACE FRONTIER FOUNDATION ANNOUNCEMENT WHO? Teachers in Space is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote science education through providing space flight and research opportunities for classroom teachers. WHAT? Last year, Teachers in Space announced its first 7 teacher astronaut trainees. Meet members of the organization, including the first crop of teacher astronaut trainees, known as the Pathfinder 7. You can speak with them about the training they have undergone […]
SPACE FLORIDA PRESS RELEASE
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved a Launch Site Operator’s License for Space Florida to facilitate commercial launches from Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46). The license went into affect July 1, 2010.
Astronauts frolic about in microgravity high above the Earth.
Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center
I received some sad news recently. It seems that Some of my former co-workers had gone into the office on a Monday morning as usual. Began doing their jobs just like they always did. They were then called into meetings, told they were being laid off, and sent off to pack up their things.
Lately, there has been some talk about Russia reviving Soviet-era space shuttle efforts. Discussions have centered around both the large Buran orbiter, a U.S. space shuttle clone that flew once in 1988, and various smaller shuttle vehicles that the Soviet Union tested over the years.
The Roscosmos Public Affairs Office says that the first option is not being pursued:
Answering the questions of the students at the opening ceremony of International Students’ Science School “Space Exploration: Theory and Practice” in Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov said that the Buran project would not be revived.
