President Barack Obama’s new space policy puts a lot of emphasis on the development of “game changing” technology that will allow us to explore and settle the cosmos.
The approach will get an early test run next month during the 2010 Rice Business Plan Competition in House. NASA’s Johnson Space Center recently announced the addition of a $50,000 “Game Changer” Commercial Space Innovation Prize to the contest.
Experience weightlessness through ZERO-G in Washington DC on April 3. (PRNewsFoto/Zero Gravity Corporation, Al Powers)
Ah, springtime in Washington.
The sun is shining. Cherry blossoms are blooming. And the Nats are losing.
Now we can add one more thing to spring in the big D.C.: rich people floating.
The Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed a measure today that unfreezes $10 million needed for the completion of a new commercial launch complex at Cape Canaveral.
Space Florida will use the fund for work on Launch Complex 36, which is being designed for use by commercial launch providers. The Legislature had appropriated $14.5 million for the work in 2008; however, it froze the funding last year after $4.5 million had been spent because Space Florida did not have a master plan.
International Space Station
AVIATION WEEK PRESS RELEASE
Today at an awards dinner in Washington, DC, AVIATION WEEK named the winners of the 53rd Annual Laureate Awards, which honor those who have shown heroism and exceptional leadership in the aviation, aerospace and defense industries. The following Laureate Award winners have advanced their organizations, integrated new technologies, and transformed aviation history.
Space: International Space Station Program Managers Pierre Jean, Canadian Space Agency; Bernardo Patti, European Space Agency; Yoshiyuki Hasegawa, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Alexey Krasnov, Roscosmos; and Michael Suffredini, NASA, completed the 25-year project in 2009 with the addition of the last major modules and the expansion of the crew to six. The ISS is arguably the signature engineering achievement of the last 60 years. By working together, partner agencies demonstrated that the station is as much an achievement in foreign relations as it is in aerospace engineering.
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION PRESS RELEASE
March 11, 2010
President Obama’s remarks today on the National Export Initiative and the agenda for export control modernization together signal his commitment to protect our national security while strengthening U.S. exports. In today’s intensely competitive global economy, American economic leadership is increasingly at risk.
Assessing Commercial Space Capabilities U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Science and Space Subcommittee Mar 18 2010 2:30 PM Russell Senate Office Building – 253 Witnesses Lieutenant General Thomas P. Stafford United States Air Force, (Ret.) Astronaut (Ret.) Mr. Bryan D. O’Connor Chief, Safety and Mission Assurance National Aeronautics and Space Administration Dr. George C. Nield Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation Federal Aviation Administration Mr. Malcolm L. […]
XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle
XCOR PRESS RELEASE
Airgas, Inc. (NYSE: ARG), the largest U.S. distributor of gases, welding and safety products, and XCOR Aerospace, which develops and produces reusable rocket-powered vehicles and propulsion systems, today jointly announced a 15-year product sales agreement and a sponsorship agreement. Airgas will provide liquid oxygen, helium, and nitrogen for XCOR’s reusable, non-toxic propulsion systems, including the propulsion system on the XCOR Lynx reusable suborbital spacecraft. Airgas and XCOR will also participate in joint marketing programs to promote XCOR propulsion systems and suborbital space launch services.
Space shuttle Atlantis lands on runway 33 at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility concluding the STS-129 mission. Photo credit: NASA Jack Pfaller
There’s a whole bunch of things going on in the fight over NASA’s budget among different states. A brief overview: there are deep concerns and guarded optimism in Florida, cries of lawbreaking from Alabama, strong condemnations in Texas and Utah, and great enthusiasm in Virginia.
Let’s start with Florida, where there seems to be some optimism:
Sen. Bill Nelson met with President Barack Obama today to discuss NASA, and the Florida Democrat came away optimistic. “Excellent conversation,” he said of his White House talk.
High-tech training industry says it could absorb many shuttle job losses
Orlando Sentinel
With thousands of Space Coast workers facing unemployment as the U.S. space-shuttle program winds down, Orlando’s high-tech military-training industry says it has jobs for many of those who will be displaced.
But work-force officials in Brevard County aren’t convinced the region’s training-simulation companies will have nearly enough openings for those expected to lose their jobs when shuttle launches end at Kennedy Space Center. Even if such jobs materialize, there is not enough money, so far at least, to retrain space workers to fill them, Brevard officials say….
Edoardo Amaldi
ESA MISSION UPDATE
Production of the Automated Transfer Vehicles is gearing up. After the flawless flight of the first ATV, Jules Verne, the second, Johannes Kepler, is being completed for launch later this year. Now the third ATV has been named after the Italian physicist and space pioneer Edoardo Amaldi.
Europe’s ATV space freighter proved its maturity in 2008, when Jules Verne completed a demonstration flight to the International Space Station (ISS), docked with 4.5 tonnes of food, water, fuel, supplies and equipment, served as a propulsion module for six months and finally undocked and entered Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Pacific. The ATV spacecraft are key to the Station’s logistics and operations. They are an excellent demonstration of Europe’s capability in creating space infrastructure for human spaceflight and exploration. The first ATV was named after the visionary French science-fiction writer Jules Verne, and the second honoured German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler.
Engineers dressed in Self-Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble, or SCAPE suits, prepare to fuel Planck with liquid hydrazine on 15 April 2009. Credits: ESA-CNES-Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P. Baudon
“Unfortunately hydrazine is also highly corrosive and extremely toxic. When leaked into the environment, it degrades in a few days but has the potential to harm plants and marine life, while exposure is considered harmful to people at just 50 parts per million.
Seeking an alternative, ESA has been working with a company called ECAPS, part of the Swedish Space Corporation Group, to build and test a thruster that runs on a safer, more environmentally friendly fuel.”
Return of iconic robotic arm being discussed by NASA, Canadian Space Agency
Canadian Press
It has travelled thousands of kilometres in space, repaired orbiting satellites, unclogged astronauts’ toilets, and helped build the International Space Station.
Now the Canadarm appears set to come home.
