X PRIZE FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE
The X PRIZE Foundation (XPF) is transforming its vision to address worldwide challenges in the areas of Energy & Environment, Exploration of the Oceans and Space, Life Sciences and Education & Global Development. The Foundation aims to launch $100 million in prizes over the next 10 years, accelerating the rate of positive change with competitions that capture the public imagination and inspire results.
RICE ALLIANCE PRESS RELEASE (ADAPTED)
The 2010 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC) awarded more than $1 million in cash and prizes at an awards banquet on April 17. The world’s richest and largest business plan competition in the world brought 42 teams from across the globe to pitch their new technology business plans.
NASA Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston awarded $110,000 in prizes, including by the new $50,000 “Game Changer†award. The Heinlein Prize Trust also gave out a $15,000 Space Commercialization Award.
GSLV Mark III engine test (Photo: ISRO)
An article in The Economic Times looks at India’s ambitious space agenda, which include powerful cryogenic engines, lunar and martian colonization, and grabbing a piece of the space tourism market:
“Space tourism is something where India can play a niche role with its affordable solutions. However, this will take some time,†says Ajey Lele from the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).
But the fact that this is an achievable challenge was evident when he said: “India’s Chandrayaan programme was less costly than the private jet gifted by Mukesh Ambani to his wife.â€
Cecil Field in Jacksonville, recently designated a commercial spaceport.
CSF PRESS RELEASE
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce that Cecil Field Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, which received its spaceport license from the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this year, has joined the Federation as an Executive Member, having received unanimous approval by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Board of Directors.
Cecil Field (airport code VQQ) is located approximately 15 miles west of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, and is one of five airports run by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority.  As a decommissioned naval airbase, Cecil Field has four, 200-foot wide runways, three of which measure 8,000 feet. The fourth runway is 12,500 feet in length, one of the longest in Florida. Using this infrastructure, Cecil Field is preparing to become a base for suborbital commercial human spaceflight in Florida.
Florida Governor Charlie Crist visited Cecil Field Spaceport on January 13, shortly after Cecil Field received its FAA spaceport license on January 11. During the visit, Governor Crist stated, “It’s a wonderful accomplishment to have the opportunity to get into the commercial space industry and do it right here from the First Coast.â€
SPACE ADVENTURES PRESS RELEASE
Space Adventures, Ltd., the only company currently providing human space mission opportunities to the world marketplace, today announced that the company has entered into an exclusive marketing agreement with Armadillo Aerospace, LLC, a leading developer of reusable rocket powered vehicles. Space Adventures will exclusively market and sell commercial passenger experiences on Armadillo Aerospace’s future suborbital spaceflight vehicles that are currently in development.
SS2 and VMS Eve in hangar 2
In an op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, Mojave Air and Space Port manager Stuart O. Witt says that California is losing out on commercial space opportunities due to a lack of focus, excessive regulation, and an overall lack of competitiveness:
While our politicians in Sacramento continue to proselytize for “green jobs” that may or may not appear, they have been ignoring one of California’s most important and innovative industries: private space travel. This malign neglect has allowed New Mexico to capture the space tourism business, and the loss serves as a sad poster child for California’s overall competitive failure.
Space tourism turns 9 years old today. On April 28, 2001, NASA-engineer-turned-investment-guru Dennis Tito thundered off the pad at Baikonur in a Soyuz spacecraft to become the world’s first billionaut. He spent 7 days, 22 hours, 4 minutes in space, most of it aboard the International Space Station, and completed 128 orbits of the Earth. Since then, six other private space travelers have journeyed into orbit (one of them twice), […]
Launch complexes on Wallops Island, Virginia
In an op-ed in the Virginian-Pilot, Jack Kennedy points out how international the team is that is building and assembling Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Taurus-2 rocket, which is set to launch out of Wallops Island next year:
Several Ukrainian national rocket engineers will be working there to help build the first stage of the Taurus-2 booster rocket, which is set to take flight from Wallops Island next April. The internationally made Taurus-2 with the Cygnus spacecraft will transport cargo to the orbiting International Space Station. It should be the first of many launches.
Organizations hoping to land the FAA’s new Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation (CST) face a Friday deadline for proposal submissions.
The CST is designed as a central hub that will link universities, government agencies and private companies to conduct joint research and development in commercial space technologies. The FAA plans to award contracts for the center this year.
The Australian TV show, “A Current Affair,” looks at the Starwalker reality show, which seems to have been bogus.
Artist's conception of Obital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II rocket set for launch at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia.
AEROJET PRESS RELEASE
Aerojet, a GenCorp (NYSE: GY) company, and its Russian partner United Engine Corporation (UEC), announced today the signing of a cooperation agreement regarding their next steps in the companies’ cooperative efforts to provide NK-33 and AJ26 rocket engines to the commercial launch market.
The launch abort vehicle stands ready for launch at the Orion Abort Flight Test Launch Complex 32E. Credit: U.S. Army White Sands Test Facility.
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
With hundreds of tests and verifications officially complete, members of the Flight Test Readiness Review board unanimously agreed that Pad Abort 1 (PA-1) is ready for launch May 6 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
