Live At KSC: USA Announces Freeze On Raises
Florida Today
NASA’s prime shuttle fleet operator is freezing merit raises for all 8,903 employees in 2010, a move being made to protect current jobs and increase the company’s ability to win new business as its largest contract is winding toward an end.
(more…)
Accused spy Stewart David Nozette in India.
An update on the Stewart David Nozette spy case from Talking Points Memo:
The spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington tells TPMmuckraker that it is watching the espionage case of Stewart Nozette closely following a report that the high-level U.S. government scientist traveled to India with two computer thumb drives in January.
“Definitely we have interest in the news,” said spokesman Nadeen Kiani. “The concerned desk officer is watching [developments].”
In their first run today and their first ever successful run in any of the NASA sponsored Power Beaming Challenge events, Team Lasermotive qualified for at least a share of the 1st level prize money of $900,000. The event also known as the Space Elevator Games has two other competing teams, USST and KC Space Pirates, who will try to duplicate Lasermotive’s effort. Teams will also be vying for the […]
Want a solution? Try offering a prize
US government joins soaring use of contests to engage innovators
Boston Globe
In pursuit of a prestigious prize, people often push the boundaries of what is possible.
The $10 million Ansari X Prize proved that to be true five years ago, when its winners launched a private manned vehicle into space. The prize spawned a resurgence of high-profile competitions, with private foundations and companies putting up hundreds of millions of dollars to solve technological challenges as urgent as building more efficient cars, and as trivial as predicting what movies people would like.
Kelly Beatty has an update on the LCROSS findings over at Sky & Telescope. NASA scientists are still analyzing data and may announce some preliminary results (including the discovery of water) at the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group meeting in Houston on Nov. 16-19.
For now, let me tantalize you with a preliminary result from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which viewed the Centaur’s demise from nearly overhead and just 48 miles (76 km) up. An instrument dubbed the Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) probed the ultraviolet spectrum of the impact plume after it had risen high enough to be projected against black space above the lunar limb.
Device Like ‘Star Trek’ Replicator Might Fly on Space Station
Space.com
Space explorers have yet to get their hands on the replicator of “Star Trek” to create anything they might require. But NASA has developed a technology that could enable lunar colonists to carry out on-site manufacturing on the moon, or allow future astronauts to create critical spare parts during the long trip to Mars.
The Independent has a profile about Frenchman Philippe Starck, who is “arguably the most famous designer dans le monde” and whose work will soon be seen by millionauts flying into space aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo out of Spaceport America.
(more…)
NASA Drops Ares I-Y Flight-test
Aviation Week
NASA’s Constellation Program has recommended dropping a planned follow-on to last week’s successful Ares I-X flight-test because it doesn’t have the funding necessary to get an upper stage engine ready in time.
Computer generated image showing the debris cloud around Earth.
Space junk storm will up mission costs: experts
Reuters
A growing storm of debris flying around in space is dramatically increasing the risk of orbital crashes, and steps to avoid them will add greatly to the costs of future space flight, British space experts say.
Over the last week, there have been some decidedly mixed signals on the future of military operations in space. On Monday, there was this blast out of China to mark the 60th anniversary of that nation’s air force:
A top China air force commander has called the militarisation of space an “historical inevitability”, state media said Monday, marking an apparent shift in Beijing’s opposition to weaponising outer space.
Richard Branson after getting drenched by some Virgin Galactic staffers.
Budget Space Travel with Virgin
Edinburgh Napier News
Whitehorn delivered a lecture to an audience at Edinburgh Napier University this week on the Virgin Galactic project in which he reassured listeners that the cost of a ticket is expected to drop gradually to just $90,000 per person…
India’s space ambitions taking off
The Washington Post
The ambitions of the 46-year-old national space program could vastly expand India’s international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China. China, the only country besides the United States and Russia to have launched a manned spacecraft, did so six years ago.
