XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle

Alan Stern says its like deja vu all over again with regards to suborbital space research:

In 1946, when the U.S. Army formed its Rocket Research Panel, only a tiny fraction of the nation’s astronomers, atmospheric scientists, biologists and solar physicists appreciated the power that access to space would have on their research. Yet just a decade later, rocketborne research had become so powerful a tool that it formed the centerpiece of space efforts in 1957’s International Geophysical Year (IGY).

Today, in late-2009, the research community is very much “in 1946” regarding the powerful opportunities that next-generation suborbital vehicles like Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, XCOR’s Lynx and others offer for research, education and public outreach (EPO) activities in space.

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The System F6 space architecture replaces the traditional monolithic spacecraft with a wireless “virtual spacecraft” operating as a cluster of modules

DARPA Sat Project Could Change Industry
Aviation Week

A fractionated satellite concept that replaces large satellites with clusters of wirelessly-linked modular spacecraft flying in loose formation has the potential to drive cultural change and reinvigorate a “mature” U.S. space industry, proponents say.

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Most history texts date the beginning of the space age to Oct. 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. I believe it actually dates back even further, to a picture perfect fall day almost exactly 15 years earlier in Nazi Germany.

It was on October 3, 1942,  that Wernher von Braun and his team launched the first successful ballistic missile at Peenemunde on the German Baltic coast. The rocket reached an altitude just short of 90 kilometers (56 miles), becoming the first human-made object to reach the fringes of space.

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Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson discussed the future of space tourism as the company’s latest client, Guy Laliberte, arrived at the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz transport:

Anderson pointed out that it was not yet certain whether the shuttle fleet would actually be retired next year. And as a backup plan, Space Adventures is looking into alternate means of reaching the space station — for example, via the rocket delivery system currently being developed by California-based SpaceX.

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Image above: Billionaut Guy Laliberte (front row, far right) and the Expedition 20 and 21 crews gathered in the Zvezda service module for a conference with family members and representatives on the ground. Credit: NASA TV

NASA MISSION UPDATE

Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev along with spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté have arrived at the International Space Station. They docked their Soyuz TMA-16 to the aft end of the Zvezda service module at 4:35 a.m. EDT Friday. They launched Wednesday at 3:14 a.m. from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
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AD ASTRA PRESS RELEASE
30 September 2009

Ad Astra Rocket Company’s VASIMR® VX-200 rocket prototype reached its highly- coveted 200 kW maximum power milestone at 11:59 am (CST) in tests conducted at the company’s Houston laboratory. The DC power trace actually exceeded the design requirement by 1 kW and exhibited the clear signature of a well established plateau at peak power (see graph).

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A Russian Soyuz spacecraft in orbit

Space Adventures says ready to send 2 tourists on each space trip
RIA Novosti

The U.S. firm Space Adventures said on Friday it will be able to send two space tourists into orbit on Soyuz spacecraft from 2012 onwards.

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Several weeks ago, it was announced that a Mystery Team (pictured above, in stock photo) had become the fourth group to join the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Today, the identity of said team was revealed on The Launch Pad :

Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge continues to heat up, with a FOURTH competitor now officially entered in the race for the remaining purses. Team BonNovA, stationed in Mojave, CA, will be flying their Lauryad I & II vehicles on October 26-27, 2009 at Cantil, CA. We are definitely excited to see what they have in store for the competition.

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The Augustine’s Commission final report will be submitted to the White House in mid-October.

PRESS RELEASE

Today the c-base Open Moon Group (COM Group) announces its entrance into the race to the moon, hosted by the Google Lunar X-Prize (GLXP). The COM Group is an association of small and medium enterprises and space enthusiasts to win the $20 million first prize of the GLXP. The COM Group consists of scientists and business consultants, who started to mobilize the german web community as well as the political, economical and technological elite in Berlin and beyond for the idea to return to the Moon and thereby definitely open Space for private economic exploration as well as for all mankind. The COM Group is based in the c-base, a well known hacker-space in Berlin.

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Peter Siebold, Scaled Composites’ Director of Flight Operations, was the recipient of the Society of Experimental Pilot’s prestigious Iven C. Kincheloe award on Saturday, September 26, 2009.