Loral Press Release
Loral Space & Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:LORL – News) today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009. Notable achievements for the company include:
PRESS RELEASE
Sarasota, FL, November 11, 2009 — You no longer have to be an astronaut to train for space at one of NASA’s premier space facilities. Incredible Adventures is teaming up with Starfighters Aerospace to offer a four day commercial space flight training program at NASA’s John F Kennedy Space Center, near Orlando, Florida. Flight Training is open to anyone who meets basic age, health and security clearance requirements.
The Planetary Society's LightSail-1 solar sail. Credit: Rick Sternbach/The Planetary Society
Two solar sailing trials readied for launch next year
Spaceflight Now
Japan is planning to launch an interplanetary solar sail mission called Ikaros next May. The Planetary Society will follow with its own demo flight by the end of 2010, the space advocacy group announced Monday in a statement written by Louis Friedman, the society’s executive director.
HRH Prince Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud flew as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.
PRESS RELEASE
Abu Dhabi, UAE, 11 November 2009: Abu Dhabi’s position as an emerging hub of the developing Arab space industry will be highlighted when a distinguished international line-up of experts and key decision makers gather in the UAE capital for next month’s Global Space Technology Forum.
The second edition of the event is being staged at a time when Abu Dhabi has moved to the forefront of increased regional space industry activity with major investment in an Earth Observation Space Centre, a Virgin Galactic Space Port and the Yahsat telecommunications satellite programme.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has appointed Stephen Gibson Commercial Director effective 1st November with responsibility for contracts, sub-contracts, regulatory and insurance activities.
Stephen is no stranger to SSTL, having been involved in the acquisition of SSTL and in developing the working relationship between SSTL and its new parent company EADS Astrium NV since October 2008, while employed by Astrium.
A Russian Soyuz launches the new Poisk module to the International Space Station.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
The new Russian Mini-Research Module 2 (MRM2), also known as Poisk, launched aboard a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan Tuesday at 9:22 a.m. EST. Thursday at 10:44 a.m., the MRM2 will dock to the space-facing port of the Zvezda service module. Poisk is a Russian term that translates to search, seek and explore.
Poisk will provide an additional docking port for visiting Russian spacecraft. It also will serve as an extra airlock for spacewalkers wearing Russian Orlan spacesuits. Cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Maxim Suraev were reviewing procedures with ground specialists for entering Poisk after it arrives.
NASA has contacted at least five companies for its Commercial Crew Development program: ULA, Boeing, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Paragon SDC.
NASA's X-38 space station escape prototype
NASA’s prototype X-38 space station escape vehicle has finally found a new home. It arrived at the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska last weekend. In other words, you can now see a canceled vehicle you probably long ago forgotten at someplace you probably never heard of before.
But, at least it didn’t land in the future.
The Planetary Society's LightSail-1 solar sail. Credit: Rick Sternbach/The Planetary Society
PLANETARY SOCIETY PRESS RELEASE
“We’re back!” said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society. “With an even more ambitious solar sail program than our last venture.”
The Planetary Society today announced LightSail, a plan to sail a spacecraft on sunlight alone by the end of 2010. The new solar sail project, boosted by a one-million-dollar anonymous donation, was unveiled at an event on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C on the 75th anniversary of the birth of Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan, a long-time advocate of solar sailing.
SPACEX PRESS RELEASE
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announces that Colonel Scott Henderson has joined the company.
He will serve as the director of Mission Assurance and Integration and will also handle Florida external relations, assisting with state and local governmental, customer and media relations. Henderson will primarily support former astronaut Ken Bowersox, vice president of SpaceX’s Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance office, working out of the company’s Florida office.
XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle
Commercial Spaceflight Federation Press Release
Total investment in the commercial human spaceflight sector has risen by 20% since January 2008, reaching a cumulative total of $1.46 billion, according to a new extensive study performed by the Tauri Group and commissioned by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Revenues and deposits for commercial human spaceflight services, hardware, and support services has also grown, reaching a total of $261 million for the year 2008.