A taikonaut emerges from China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a successful orbital flight

China picks first female astronaut candidates
Associated Press

China’s military-backed space program has selected 45 astronaut candidates, including its first women hopefuls, for a training program less than a year after the country completed its first spacewalk.

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Barak Geffen, a prominent South African real estate mogul who served as project manager for Mark Shuttleworth’s space tourism flight in 2002, has died in Johannesburg at the age of 35.

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An unknown fourth team is about to join three other teams vying for the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Masten Space System’s Xombie vehicle successfully completed one test flight today at the Mojave Air & Space Port in an effort to capture second prize in the first phase of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

Guy Laliberté’s Cirque du Soleil is in talks with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to televise the soon-to-be space tourist’s unprecedented live show from space and 14 cities around the world on Oct. 9.

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Model of NASA's Orion spacecraft

HOUSE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
REPUBLICAN CAUCUS
PRESS RELEASE

The Committee on Science and Technology today held a hearing to examine the summary report of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, a report requested by the Administration to review options for the future of human space flight.

“It is my opinion that NASA has the greatest chance of success if given a clearly defined destination and the clearly defined design requirements that go with it,” said Ranking Member Ralph Hall (R-TX). “Our greatest concern has long been the inadequate level of funding being requested, and the gap between the retirement of the Space Shuttle and development of the follow-on Constellation system.”

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Ares 1-X undergoing assembly

THE PLANETARY SOCIETY PRESS RELEASE

Today, Norman Augustine, the Chair of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, testifies to the U.S. Congress to present the summary of their final report to the Obama Administration. The Committee made a number of important conclusions and suggestions for changes in Constellation, the currently planned U.S. human spaceflight program.

“The Planetary Society agrees with their principal conclusion that human space exploration requires a gradual buildup of the NASA budget to at least $3 billion above the current level by 2014,” said Louis Friedman, Society Executive Director. “We also concur with their specific suggestions about changes to NASA’s planned program.” Those specific suggestions were:

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HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
PRESS RELEASE

Today, the House Committee on Science and Technology held the first Congressional hearing to examine the summary report of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee that was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the direction of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and to consider implications and related issues for NASA.

The panel was asked to identify alternative courses that the U.S. might pursue in the area of human spaceflight, including the current plan, the Constellation program. Members queried the chairman of the review committee on its assessment of the Constellation program, which has been in place for four years and has passed a number of major technical milestones, and were told that it represented a viable exploration option if adequate funding were provided. One of the panel’s most important overall findings was that “Human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit is not viable under the FY 2010 budget guideline.”

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Altair

Return-to-moon plan gets boost on Capitol Hill
Associated Press

“With the resources available, the program I think is fatally flawed,” testified Norman Augustine, head of the panel of experts appointed by President Barack Obama.

But congressmen from both parties, including the wife of an astronaut, came to the 5-year-old moon plan’s defense. They even attacked the Augustine panel for referring to the plan in the past tense at one point.

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Some Unhappy with Panel Choice
Florida Today

Supporters of interim Space Florida president and Brevard County resident Frank DiBello are urging a selection committee to reconsider its recommendation Tuesday that former NASA deputy administrator Shana Dale be named the space group’s permanent president.

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