SpaceX Seeks To Drop a Dragon Flight from COTS Plan
Space News
Buoyed by the successful debut of its Falcon 9 rocket June 4, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Corp. is hoping to persuade NASA to waive one of three planned test flights designed to prove its reusable Dragon capsule can ferry cargo to the international space station.
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
NASA has selected 18 innovative technology proposals for negotiation of Phase 2 contract awards in the Small Business Technology Transfer program, or “STTR.” The selected projects have a total value of approximately $11 million. The contracts will be awarded to 18 high technology firms that are partnering with 15 universities in 12 states.
As an investment opportunity, STTR innovations address specific technology gaps in mission programs, provide a foundation for future technology needs, and are complementary to other NASA research investments.
It looks like NASA is moving toward deciding whether to add an additional space shuttle flight to the remaining pair that it will fly to the International Space Station. The extra flight would be conducted next June by the space shuttle Atlantis. Florida Today reports: An extra shuttle mission would help NASA get more supplies to the space station, and hedge against any delay in commercial cargo deliveries to the […]
Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center
Upgrading KSC: Feds, locals hope modernizing the center means construction jobs now, space jobs later
Florida Today
While the Obama Administration’s plans to upgrade Kennedy Space Center mean more space business down the road, the multi-billion dollar stimulus could create jobs and boost the Space Coast economy before the first next-generation rocket launches.
NASA video of the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere over Australia. BBC News reports that a sample return capsule, which scientists hope contain samples from an asteroid, landed intact in the Woomera Range.
LORAL PRESS RELEASE
Loral Space & Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:LORL) announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary Space Systems/Loral, Inc. (SS/L) has filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The filing contemplates the registration and offer to the public of up to 19.9 percent of SS/L’s common stock; upon completion of the offering, Loral will continue to own the remainder of SS/L’s common stock. Funds raised in the offering will be used by SS/L for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including to finance further growth and expansion of SS/L’s business.
Alliant Techsystems Cries Foul as NASA Moves To Curb Constellation
Space News
Alliant Techsystems (ATK) says NASA is selectively applying a rarely used contracting rule in an effort to halt work on key elements of the agency’s Constellation program, a 5-year-old effort to replace the space shuttle with new hardware optimized for lunar missions that the White House has proposed canceling next year.
NASA asserts the Constellation program is facing a potential $1 billion funding shortfall in the remaining four months of the current budget year because contractors have not accurately accounted for termination liability costs they could incur as a result of having to cancel orders, vacate leases and pink-slip employees if the program is shut down. But Magna, Utah-based ATK Aerospace, prime contractor on the first stage of the Ares 1 rocket — a key Constellation program element — says that historically, termination liability funds have not been included in contractor costs.
ESA's ExoMars rover. (Courtesy of ESA)
UKSA PRESS RELEASE
The UK Space Agency is announcing £10.5M for the development of instruments to search for signs of past or present life on Mars. The instruments are part of the scientific payload on the ExoMars rover to be launched in 2018 as part of a joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and US space agency NASA. ExoMars is a flagship project in the UK Space Agency’s science and exploration programme.
Participants experience microgravity aboard a Zero-G Corporation parabolic flight. (PRNewsFoto/Zero Gravity Corporation, Al Powers)
ZERO-G PRESS RELEASE
On June 26, Zero Gravity Corporation’s (ZERO-G), G-FORCE ONE will take off from Logan airport offering flyers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to defy the law of gravity. Flyers will have the unique opportunity to float freely in complete weightlessness onboard ZERO-G’s weightless flight. ZERO-G is the first and only FAA-approved provider of commercial weightless flights.
The Japanese satellite Hayabusa (MUSES-C) returns home after a seven year journey in space on Sunday with a landing in the Australian Woomera range. Launched on May 9, 2003, the spacecraft rendezvoused with the asteroid Itokawa in 2005. The spacecraft landed on the asteroid; scientists are hoping that it collected soil samples that will be contained in the re-entry capsule. The following are main capsule reentry plans. Sunday, June 13 […]
JAXA MISSION UPDATE The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) began to deploy the solar sail of the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator “IKAROS” on June 3 (Japan Standard Time). On June 10 (JST,) we have confirmed that it was successfully expanded and was generating power through its thin film solar cells at about 770 km from the Earth. The IKAROS was launched on May 21, 2010 (JST), from the Tanegashima […]
In space news we have a confirmed UFO sighting as well as a very awesome explanation as to what it is, Send your face to space, and wrapping up the Moon (AKA @toddthemoon) with a bow to deliver clean and limitless power back to Earth. Pipe dream or valuable reason to push for human space flight? After the commercial break we’re joined by Tim Bailey and George Schellenger of SpaceTaskForce.com […]
