SPACEPORT AMERICA PRESS RELEASE
New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) officials announced a successful launch today for aerospace manufacturing company Moog-FTS at Spaceport America. The launch was a test of a ground-launched UAV prototype. All test objectives were met during the vehicle’s low altitude suborbital trajectory.
Reaction Engines has completed studies on an orbital transfer vehicle called Fluyt.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program, in coordination with the agency’s Office of the Chief Engineer and Office of Human Capital Management, has announced the selection of the 2009 Innovation Ambassadors.
The Innovation Ambassador program allows some of NASA’s most talented scientists and engineers to work at several of America’s leading innovative external research and development organizations.
GOODYEAR PRESS RELEASE
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (NYSE: GT) have developed an airless tire to transport large, long-range vehicles across the surface of the moon.
The new “Spring Tire” with 800 load bearing springs is designed to carry much heavier vehicles over much greater distances than the wire mesh tire previously used on the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The new tire will allow for broader exploration and the eventual development and maintenance of a lunar outpost.
According to Vivake Asnani, NASA’s principal investigator at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, this was a significant change in requirements that required innovation. “With the combined requirements of increased load and life, we needed to make a fundamental change to the original moon tire,” he said. “What the Goodyear-NASA team developed is an innovative, yet simple network of interwoven springs that does the job. The tire design seems almost obvious in retrospect, as most good inventions do.”
AIRBOURNE ENGINEERING PRESS RELEASE
2 July 2009
This week Airborne Engineering Limited blazed a new trail in British rocketry by moving to facilities at the former Rocket Propulsion Establishment at Westcott – the site where the rocket engines of the British Blue Streak rocket were tested in the 1960s.
Rocket Launch Delayed Again
The Korea Times
It looks like South Korea will need more time to get its space ambitions off the ground. The country was expecting its first launch into space next week, but the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Tuesday that technical issues have forced another delay.
Rocket company layoffs add to woes in Northern Utah
KSL-TV
Job layoffs have pummeled the nation in recent months. But one part of Utah has been especially hard-hit. And the human toll is rising.
The ATK rocket company plans to lay off about 450 people soon, creating additional strains in Northern Utah. “I think any time you have to lay people off, it’s a blow,” said Trina Patterson, ATK spokeswoman.
NEXT STEP IN SPACE COALITION PRESS RELEASE
The Next Step in Space Coalition, a group of businesses, organizations, and people working to ensure the future of US human spaceflight, announced today that its membership has grown to include a diverse set of businesses and organizations, including Google, Inc., Analytic Graphics Inc., the Space Coast Economic Development Commission and the National Space Society.
Spurred on by the public debut of Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo, attendance at the EAA AirVenture 2009 air show hit 578,000 this year, a 12 percent increase over 2008.
“I had high expectations for AirVenture 2009, but even those expectations were exceeded,” EAA president Tom Poberezny said in a press release. “After each event, you like to say it was the best ever, but you can’t do that every year. But I’m going to say it this year – AirVenture 2009 was the best ever. It’s difficult to imagine a week that matched the highlights, enthusiasm, and passion for aviation that we saw this year at Oshkosh.â€
Exterior View of Genesis module
ANDREWS SPACE PRESS RELEASE
Andrews Space, Inc. (Andrews) announced today that it has delivered avionics flight hardware to Aerojet for Bigelow Aerospace’s Sundancer Aft Propulsion System. Under a five month fixed-price contract, Andrews developed, flight-qualified and delivered, 20 propulsion system diode boards responsible for electromotive force protection within the Aerojet propulsion system. Aerojet is under contract to Bigelow to develop the integrated aft propulsion system on Bigelow’s Sundancer human-tended space platform.
eSpace Press Release
eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a non-profit business incubator for aerospace companies, today announced that it has added new members to its board of directors and a new member to its team of government liaisons.
Already lauded for workforce development programs that encourage high school and college students to enter the aerospace industry, eSpace now fortifies its position as mentor with high-level, connected advisors and guides who can help space entrepreneurs succeed in the highly-regulated, tight-knit aerospace industry during a recessionary economy.
Former NASA chief of staff Courtney Stadd has gone on trial on corruption charges relating to an Earth sciences grant to Mississippi State University.
