Artists conception of WhiteKnightTwo and the SpaceShipTwo space tourism vehicle. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
Qatar, Bahrain eyed stake in Virgin Galactic – source
Arabian Business
Both the Qatari and Bahraini governments were interested in buying a stake in Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic, industry sources have revealed.
Flying the flag on trips to Mars
Irish Times
It’s possible that one of the most unexpected places on earth – or in space – to find an Irish flag. But there it is, the tricolour, on a prototype plasma rocket being developed by a US company for express trips to Mars.
The Hunt for Beer in Space
Australian Broadcasting Company
James Cook University’s Centre for Astronomy director, Dr Andrew Walsh, combines his two passions – beer brewing and space study – to bring his science “down to earth”.
His research involves identifying different substances, molecules and chemicals in space and in doing that has he discovered many of the chemical ingredients in beer are out there.
Sir Richard Branson with Virgin Galactic pilots, staffers and investors in front of the WhiteKnightTwo
Branson’s Still the PR King
Arabian Business
In 1998, during an interview with Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, I asked him what the secret was to starting billion dollar companies. “I’ll tell you one day,” he said.
Two years later, I was waiting to get off the first ever Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Las Vegas, when I saw Branson at the front – getting dressed as Elvis Presley. His mother, who was also on the flight, looked at him in horror. “What on earth are you doing?” she asked.
Space official proposes billion-euro German moon mission
Deutsche Welle
A German government official has called for the country to launch an unmanned mission to the moon by 2015. The project would boost research, but currently there’s hardly the money for such high-flying ventures.
ISRO is making bold plans to send humans into space and a robotic spacecraft to Mars.
Artists conception of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft in orbit
NEXT STEP IN SPACE PRESS RELEASE
During what may be the last public meeting, the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, commissioned by President Obama to study current U.S. human space flight plans, there was a strong consensus for funding a robust commercial human space flight program to provide human space transportation to low Earth orbit (LEO).
Richard Branson after his first flight aboard WhiteKnightTwo at the Oshkosh airshow.
Rocket Man
Arabian Business
Richard Branson has been on the receiving end of a fair few jokes in his time. One of the more memorable was in 2000, when British satirical magazine Private Eye ran a front cover of the entrepreneur dressed as Santa Claus with the caption; ‘No-one believes in you anymore.’
Virgin Trains, his railway operation, was coming under fire for its shocking time-keeping record and Branson himself had just made a failed bid for the franchise of the UK’s National Lottery.
Model of NASA's Orion spacecraft
UPDATE: Presidential panel says NASA’s manned-flight future is bleak
Orlando Sentinel
The panel said it would take at least $3 billion more per year for NASA to have a “reasonable chance” of getting to the moon or elsewhere in the solar system before 2030. And while committee members seemed to support more money, it’s not clear where, in a time of trillion-dollar-plus federal deficits, the cash would come from.
A P3 Navy aircraft with Hanger One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has announced that it will designate the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, Calif., as a Historic Aerospace Site. A historic marker will be unveiled during a ceremony at the center on Thursday, August 25th at 10:00 a.m.
It doesn't look like we're going to the moon with Altair. Perhaps Santa Claus and his reindeer could take us there instead.
XCOR CEO and Augustine Commission member Jeff Greason says that even Santa Claus couldn’t save NASA’s plan to send humans to the moon and Mars. The Orlando Sentinel reports:
“We are on a path right now for a system on a close order of just double the budget to operate,” said panel member Jeff Greason of Constellation, which stemmed from President George W. Bush’s 2005 “vision” to return Americans to the moon by 2020 and then move on to Mars.
Greason added that if Santa Claus gave the program to the country fully developed, NASA would still have to cancel it because the agency could not afford to launch it.