NASA and White House officials are said to be coalescing around the idea of sending astronauts on deep space missions to near-Earth objects and potentially the moons of Mars.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA has been recognized for 40 years of shared project management success by the Project Management Institute, or PMI, of Newton Square, Pa.
Chandrayaan-1 SARA measurements of hydrogen flux recorded on the Moon on 6 February 2009. Credits: Elsevier 2009 (Wieser et al.), ESA-ISRO SARA data
ESA PRESS RELEASE
The Moon is a big sponge that absorbs electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. These particles interact with the oxygen present in some dust grains on the lunar surface, producing water. This discovery, made by the ESA-ISRO instrument SARA onboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, confirms how water is likely being created on the lunar surface.
The Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray talks to Richard Branson about the cost of space travel.
Artists conception of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in orbit
Thirteen former astronauts have contributed an op-ed piece to the Wall Street Journal recommending that the U.S. government leave low-Earth orbit transportation to private commercial ventures so that NASA can focus on exploring the moon and beyond.
The editors of the Pensacola News Journal have praised Dr. Joe Story, the outgoing chief innovation officer for the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, for his vision and drive in building up the sports medicine clinic. They did acknowledge that a scandal over the institute’s space tourism program has tarnished his reputation.
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
The 2009 Regolith Excavation Challenge will be held on Oct. 17-18 at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. The $750,000 prize challenge is a nationwide competition that focuses on developing improved handling technologies for moon dirt, known as lunar regolith.
Admission is free and open to the public.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is testing a new robotic lunar lander test bed that will aid in the development of a new generation of multi-use landers for future robotic space exploration. Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham
NASA PROGRAM UPDATE
How do you fly on a world with no atmosphere? Wings won’t work and neither do propellers. And don’t even try that parachute!
NASA engineer Brian Mulac has the answer. “All it takes is practice, practice, practice,” he says. “And of course, thrusters.”
The space agency is perfecting the art using a prototype lunar lander at the Marshall Space Flight Center.
Sir Richard Branson greets Virgin Galactic ticket holders. Financier Per Wimmer is at left; behind Branson is Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn.
T-minus 18 months and counting: Virgin Galactic and the future of space tourism
Scientific American
But today Branson is master of airlines on six of seven continents, employing hundreds of jets, and now the ennobled Brit predicts, his company is a scant 18 months from the first commercial near-orbit flight.
“We’ve got deposits for the first 200 seats at $200,000 a pop,” Branson told an audience of roughly 75 business executives and journalists Thursday morning at The Wall Street Journal’s Viewpoints Executive Breakfast series. In roughly 18 months, Sir Richard, his parents and his children will go into space. “My father just wants to get to heaven quicker,” he says.
Reusable Rocket Plane Soars in Test Flight
Space.com
A reusable rocket plane has made a successful test flight from New Mexico’s Spaceport America — a prototype craft built to showcase proprietary advanced launch technologies.