This week in The Space Review: Last week Virgin Galactic unveiled its suborbital space tourism vehicle, SpaceShipTwo. Jeff Foust reports from the event that very nearly got swept away by Mother Nature. As Virgin Galactic presses ahead with its plans, the industry is anxious to see just how many people are interested in paying to fly to space. Taylor Dinerman argues that it may depend on just how the experience […]
This week on The Space Show: Monday, Dec. 14, 2009, 2-3:30 PM PST: We welcome back Robert Zimmerman, author, historian, space news journalist, and much more. Sparks should fly as Bob takes us from 2009 to 2010 regarding space and science. Tuesday, Dec. 15 2009, 7-8:30 PM PST: Jeff Manber returns to the show regarding his new Apogee book, “Inside The Soviet Conspiracy that Transformed The U.S. Space Program.” Friday, […]
Sir Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic pilots, staffers and investors. To his right is Mohamed Badawy Al-Husseiny, CEO of Aabar, which made a $280 million in Virgin Galactic.
US inquiry into sale of Virgin Galactic stake to Arab investor
The Times
The United States has launched a national security investigation into the proposed sale of a stake in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space company to Arab investors.
The Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) is understood to have begun a review of Sir Richard’s sale of a 32 per cent stake in Galactic to Aabar Investments for $280 million (£170 million). The move has caused alarm in banking circles in Abu Dhabi and could raise tensions between the US and the Gulf.
I found an interesting piece in the Siskiyou Daily News about the possibility of suborbital test flights that could be taking place in Northern California:
What goes up must come down, and in this case, there’s a possibility it will be going up at the Siskiyou County Airport outside Montague and coming down in the Pacific Ocean.
Leonardo cargo module (Credit: NASA TV)
Logistics module to be modified for new mission
Spaceflight Now
NASA and the Italian Space Agency are planning to strip the Leonardo cargo module of unnecessary parts and beef up shielding to equip the barrel-shaped spacecraft for a permanent stay at the International Space Station.
Leonardo will fly on the final space shuttle mission scheduled for launch Sept. 16 next year.
Photo Credit: Sam Coniglio
Flights could be made from spaceport by 2011
Las Cruces Sun-News
Sierra County Commissioner Walter Armijo, a spaceport backer, said the SpaceShipTwo unveiling was a sign of progress in a project he believes will create new jobs. “Virgin Galactic — they’re coming through with their part of the deal,” he said.
Spacevidcast VAXHeadroom joins us for a live interview. We cover things like programming a spacecraft with only a 100MHz processor, how he got involved in programming for spacecraft and go over general tech geekry.
Russia Withholding Plutonium NASA Needs for Deep Space Exploration
Space News
Russia has reneged on an agreement to deliver a total of 10 kilograms of plutonium-238 to the United States in 2010 and 2011 and is insisting on a new deal for the costly material vital to NASA’s deep space exploration plans.
Photo Credit: Sam Coniglio
NATIONAL SPACE SOCIETY PRESS RELEASE
On December 7, 2009, in a star-studded ceremony at the Mojave Spaceport in Mojave, California, Virgin Galactic’s new commercial suborbital spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo (manufactured by Scaled Composites) was unveiled to the public for the first time. SpaceShipTwo, christened the “Enterprise”, is now ready to undergo the series of rigorous test flights and certification procedures which are necessary before it can proceed to operational status.
SSTL PRESS RELEASE
SSTL applauds Lord Drayson’s announcement of a UK executive Space Agency and believes that in the current climate it is enormously encouraging that the Science Minister has the vision to propose this initiative and the commitment to bring it to fruition.
Space experts call for regional agency
The National
Space experts are calling for the creation of a regional agency to bring the Middle East’s various programmes together, and help train the next generation of rocket scientists.
“Like there’s the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, we want the Muslim Institute of Technology,†said Ahmad al Dousari, the director of space and remote sensing at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.
Computer generated image showing the debris cloud around Earth.
Military agency studying space garbage service
Spaceflight Now
The Pentagon’s research and development division is studying concepts to remove dangerous space debris from orbit, an endeavor long dismissed as too costly but potentially feasible with technology advancements.