NASA MISSION UPDATE The STS-128 crew has been informed that Edwards Air Force Base will be activated for landing opportunities Friday. The weather at Kennedy Space Center Friday is forecast to be dynamic again. Weather at Edwards for Friday looks good.
NASA MISSION UPDATE The weather forecast is “no go” today for the first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. If the weather cooperates for the second Kennedy landing opportunity tonight, the deorbit burn would occur at 7:35 p.m. EDT with landing at 8:40 p.m.
JAXA PRESS RELEASE The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) Demonstration Flight aboard the H-IIB Launch Vehicle Test Flight (H-IIB TF1) at 2:01:46 a.m. on September 11, 2009 (Japan Standard Time, JST) from the Tanegashima Space Center. The launch vehicle flew smoothly, and, at about 15 minutes and 6 seconds after liftoff, the separation of the HTV Demonstration Flight was confirmed. The HTV will gradually […]
The Case for Commercial Crew
By John Gedmark
Commercial Space Federation
September 1, 2009
Today, the Washington Post editorial board offered a strong endorsement of commercial spaceflight for cargo and crew missions to the International Space Station. In today’s paper, the editorial board highlighted the Augustine Committee’s support of commercial spaceflight and wrote, “Now that the station is nearly complete, this might be an optimal time to open space to entrepreneurs. … It’s time to boldly go where no man has gone before. That means opening space to the kind of private-sector competition that revolutionized cyberspace…â€
Space tourist Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil took tests this week with two cosmonauts for their upcoming flight to the International Space Station.
Artists conception of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in orbit
Space.com reports that SpaceX’s founder made bold claims about his company’s ability to make commercial human spacecraft available:
Elon Musk, president of Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies, said in a Sept. 8 teleconference with reporters that his company could have a commercial crew transportation capability ready within three years of a contract award. He said the cost of transporting astronauts to low Earth orbit would run about $20 million per seat, assuming four flights a year on the planned seven-passenger Dragon.
The Stirling engine test configuration upon removal from the vacuum chamber. Image credit: NASA/MSFC/E. Given
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA has made a series of critical strides toward the development of new nuclear reactors the size of a trash can that could power a human outpost on the moon or Mars.
Three recent tests at different NASA centers and a national lab have successfully demonstrated key technologies required for compact fission-based nuclear power plants for human settlements on other worlds.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
NASA has identified the spot where it will search for water on the moon. Reporters are invited to attend the announcement of the target location where the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and its spent Centaur rocket will hit in October. The briefing will take place at 10 a.m. PDT, Friday, Sept. 11, in the main auditorium, Building N201, of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s Web site.
HIFiRE scramjet vehicle
The coming of age of Scramjet
Brisbane Times
Though Hyshot 1 failed in October of 2001, HyShot 2 scored big time the following year, it’s successful ignition beating NASA’s sleek $US185 million scramjet, the X43, to the punch and turning the heads of boffins around the world who had assumed NASA had the only game in town.
CSF PRESS RELEASE
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the Next Step in Space Coalition welcome the strong support of commercial spaceflight expressed by the White House’s Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, also known as the Augustine Committee for its Chairman, former aerospace industry executive Norm Augustine.
Acoustic Barrel Grows New Materials in Space
Discovery News
What grows in space, is about the size of a baseball and is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Jacques Guigne is waiting to find out.