PRATT & WHITNEY PRESS RELEASE

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne received a $1.8 million contract from United Launch Alliance to help design and develop an Emergency Detection System (EDS) for human spaceflights to be proposed for Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles. The EDS is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, which aims to stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop, demonstrate and accelerate human spaceflight capabilities.  Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.

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MDA Designing In-orbit Servicing Spacecraft
Space News

Canada’s MDA Corp., which has a well-established record in space robotics, is designing a satellite-servicing demonstration to refuel spacecraft in orbit and, when necessary, to push dead satellites into graveyard orbits, an MDA official said March 3.

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Art Dula and Leroy Chaio talk about Excalibur Almaz’s plans to operate a private space station. Thanks for Clark Lindsey at Hobby Space for this link.

X-51 Waverider

Scramjet with stamina ready for hypersonic test
NewScientist

In the last week of May, thousands of square miles of airspace above the Pacific Ocean will be cleared to make way for a skinny, shark-nosed aircraft called the X-51.

The 4-metre-long prototype will drop from beneath the wing of a bomber and attempt to become the first scramjet to punch through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds for minutes, not seconds.

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Ares I-X rolls out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

Scotty “Doc” Horowitz, the astronaut-turned-NASA-AA-turned-consultant who was chiefly responsible for overseeing the Ares rockets that the Obama Administration wants to cancel, has published a defense of the program on the Mars Society’s website. In it, he dispels a number of supposed “myths” concerning why the program has been singled out for cancellation.

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SPACE FLORIDA UPDATE

Florida’s space industry remained a forefront issue for legislators throughout the 2010 legislative session, which concluded on April 30. Faced with the impending Shuttle retirement (expected to result in 23,000 direct and indirect job losses, contributing to significant economic impact across the state), the legislature voted to unanimously support critical legislation designed to stimulate economic development and promote aerospace industry jobs.

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Exterior view of Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis II space station prototype in orbit.

Bigelow Marketing Inflatable Space Stations
Aviation Week

Bigelow Aerospace is kicking off a marketing campaign to attract national space agencies and corporations to its privately funded inflatable space station….

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CELESTIS PRESS RELEASE Celestis is pleased to announce the launch of Celestis 09, the Pioneer Flight, launched May 4, 2010 from Spaceport America, near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Aboard the Pioneer Flight were flight capsules and modules from the US, China, Taiwan, and Great Britain. The capsules and modules containing cremated remains will be returned to the families of Pioneer Flight participants. As always we welcomed friends, family members, and […]

Heavy Lift Launch System and Propulsion Technology Request for Information (RFI)
Issued by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

I. Background/Objective

NASA has requirements for heavy lift launch to extend human and robotic presence throughout the solar system. NASA desires to enable exploration of multiple potential destinations, including the Moon, asteroids, Lagrange points, and Mars and its environs in the most cost effective and safe manner. NASA is in the planning phase to develop strategies for enabling a heavy lift launch system. At the same time, NASA desires to develop liquid chemical propulsion technologies to support a more affordable and robust space transportation industry.This approach will strengthen Americas space industry, and could provide a catalyst for future business ventures to capitalize on affordable access to space. It will also leverage a broader range of American ingenuity to keep our nation on the leading edge of human space exploration capabilities.

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FAA Commercial Space Transportation Grant Program

ACTION

Notice of request for grant proposals for the Commercial Space Transportation Grant Program.

SUMMARY

The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) requests grant proposals pursuant to its newly funded Commercial Space Transportation Grant Program. This program has an initial appropriation of $500,000 to be used for space transportation infrastructure projects.

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NEW MEXICO SPACE GRANT CONSORTIUM PRESS RELEASE
April 4, 2010

Today’s successful launch of the UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL rocket for the New Mexico Second Annual Education Launch was greeted by cheers from students across the state of New Mexico as their payload experiments reached space, and tears of pride for the memory of a Farmington science and technology teacher who dreamed of this day. The launch took place at about 6:45 a.m. MDT.

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