NASA PRESS RELEASE

NASA has launched an initiative to use its out-of-this-world missions and technology programs to boost summer learning, particularly for underrepresented students across the nation. NASA’s Summer of Innovation supports President Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign for excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education.

The Summer of Innovation program will work with thousands of middle school teachers and students during multi-week programs in the summer of 2010 to engage students in stimulating math and science-based education programs. NASA’s goal is to increase the number of future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, with an emphasis on broadening participation of low-income, minority students.

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Several readers have pointed out to me that Starwalker Executive Producer/Showrunner Jonathan Nolan was disbarred as an attorney in Australia seven years ago on three counts of misappropriation of money from a trust fund he controlled.

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The Space Review looks about space tourist Greg Olsen’s new book, what’s ahead for NASA, and whether private companies can explore space as well as governments.

Video of SPACEX’s Falcon 9 second stage firing.

NASA's LADEE spacecraft

SS/L PRESS RELEASE

Space Systems/Loral (SS/L), a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications (Nasdaq:LORL) and the leading provider of commercial satellites, today announced that it has been selected to provide a propulsion system to NASA Ames Research Center for the Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft. The contract demonstrates NASA’s success in leveraging the capability of commercially proven technology for U.S. Government missions.

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden gave the keynote address at the 215th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Washington, DC on Tuesday. Bolden said President Barack Obama is very committed to both space science and human space exploration. He promised that continued human exploration will not be funded by gutting the science budget.

Monday, January 4, 2010, 2-3:30 PM PST: Ross Tierney discusses his Direct 3.0 plan. Tuesday, January 5, 2010, 7-8:30 PM PST: Ed McCullough will discuss his advanced concepts designs. Friday, January 8, 2010, 9:30-11:30 AM PST: Dr. Jack Zirker, author of “The Magnetic Universe: The Elusive Traces of an Invisible Force.”

NORTHROP GRUMMAN PRESS RELEASE

Northrop Grumman Corporation announced a decision to move its corporate office from Los Angeles to the Washington D.C. region by 2011.  The company is engaged in a search to identify a specific location within the Washington, D.C. region, including the District, Maryland and Virginia. It plans to complete the search by spring 2010 and open the new corporate office by summer 2011.

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This artist's concept shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet that orbits very close to its fiery hot star. NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

NASA MISSION UPDATE

NASA’s Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.

Kepler’s high sensitivity to both small and large planets enabled the discovery of the exoplanets, named Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8b. The discoveries were announced Monday, Jan. 4, by the members of the Kepler science team during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.

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Person Of The Year: The Space Entrepreneur
Aviation Week

Working quietly in the background since the days of viewgraphs, a group of space entrepreneurs has long been pitching far-fetched ideas to skeptical moneymen with the fervor of evangelists. Now their viewgraphs—updated to Powerpoint and CAD/CAM—are becoming reality, and metal and fire are streaking through the upper atmosphere into low Earth orbit.

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Starwalker Executive Producer talks about the alien visitation of Earth by the rumored Black Knight satellite.

Russia set a new world record with 33 launches in 2009.