Ares I-X rolls out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
NASA Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley was reassigned today (read: kicked upstairs in lieu of being fired) in a shakeup of the troubled human spaceflight effort that the Obama Administration wants to cancel.
Nearly four months after it was unveiled, President Obama’s plan for NASA continues to befuddle and bewilder key members of Congress, including representatives of his own party.
SFF PRESS RELEASE
The International Association of Space Entrepreneurs (“IASEâ€), an online community focused on promoting global entrepreneurship in space ventures, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Space Frontier Foundation to turn over ownership and active management of its web properties.
JAXA MISSION UPDATE May 24, 2010 The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) completed the initial operation check of the Small Solar Power Sail Demonstrator “IKAROS,” which was launched on May 21, 2010 (Japan Standard Time,) from the Tanegashima Space Center. We will take a few weeks to carry out the first verification experiments, namely deployment of the solar sail and solar power generation by thin film solar cells.
A P3 Navy aircraft with Hanger One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. (Copyright 2008: Douglas Messier)
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA’s Ames Research Center generated 5,300 jobs and $877 million in total annual economic activity in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area in 2009, according to a new economic benefits study.
The study found that nationally, NASA Ames supports more than 8,400 jobs and generates $1.3 billion in annual economic activity. Coordinated by the NASA Research Park Office and prepared by Emeryville-based Bay Area Economics (BAE) in association with Architecture, Engineering, Consulting, Operations and Management’s San Francisco office, the study also reported that NASA Ames produced 5,900 jobs and contributed $932 million to California’s economy in 2009. The study also forecast that NASA Ames’ total economic impacts will grow significantly as its NASA Research Park (NRP) is completed.
ESA PROGRAM UPDATE
The first full-duration simulation of a human mission to Mars is about to begin. After closing the hatch, the crew of six will remain in their ‘spacecraft’ for 520 days. The media are invited to witness the ‘launch’ of this historic Mars500 mission.
The 520-day simulated mission to Mars will start on 3 June, when the isolation facility is sealed and the international crew start their record-breaking experiment.
X-51 Waverider
(AFNS) The scheduled May 25 launch of the X-51A Waverider hypersonic flight test vehicle has been postponed 24 hours. The delay was due to the presence of a freighter transiting in a section of the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range several hundred miles off the California coast.
An update from SpaceX’s Emily Shanklin: Looks like the delay of the Delta IV GPS satellite launch has taken up a lot of resources at the Cape and in turn pushed the first test launch of Falcon 9 from May 28/29 to no earlier than June 2/3.
NASA's LADEE spacecraft
SS/L PRESS RELEASE
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) today announced its support for NASA’s new direction in conjunction with the preliminary design review for the propulsion system that it is building for a spacecraft that will study the lunar atmosphere.
“Space Systems/Loral has a long history of working with government agencies to provide industry solutions that meet or exceed mission requirements,” said John Celli, president of Space Systems/Loral. “By leveraging the value of commercial space industry capabilities, the new plan for NASA will help the U.S. strengthen its leadership in space while at the same time stimulating job growth in the private sector.”
Ares I-X lifts off from the Cape.
CAGW PRESS RELEASE
Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released an Issue Brief on the Constellation program. The Constellation is a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program, initiated under President George W. Bush, with the goal of putting man back on the moon by 2020. The stated goals were to gain significant experience in operating away from Earth’s environment, developing new technologies required for exploring the solar system and conducting fundamental science. But the program is the latest in a series of troubled post-Apollo human spaceflight programs within the U.S. space agency, plagued by slipping deadlines and ballooning costs.
NASA's Orion spacecraft
AEROJET PRESS RELEASE
Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, successfully completed a second set of hot-fire test sequences of its R-1E 25-pound thrust, bipropellant engine. This second test included more than 17,250 seconds of total burn time, demonstrating engine flexibility to operate under a broad variety of conditions expected for NASA’s Orion service module. Initial test results indicate the engine performed successfully in simulated space-flight mission scenarios.
Participants experience microgravity aboard a Zero-G Corporation parabolic flight. (PRNewsFoto/Zero Gravity Corporation, Al Powers)
NORTHROP GRUMMAN PRESS RELEASE
The Northrop Grumman Corporation Foundation is accepting teacher applications for the Weightless Flights of Discovery program taking place in Gulfport, Miss. on Sept. 20, 2010. A maximum of 30 teachers will be chosen to participate in the unique initiative that places teachers on micro-gravity flights to test Newton’s Laws of Motion and energize students in the formative middle-school years.
