Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia
Forty years after astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, two busloads of Delmarva’s movers and shakers this week got a peek at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which supporters hope will be the next space venture to capture the public’s imagination.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY FACILITIES COUNCIL PRESS RELEASE
Leading industrialists and academics from across the world have witnessed the launch of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s first ever UK base at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus (HSIC). As part of a two day event (22nd and 23rd July), ESA saw for themselves the world-leading research and technology facilities already at the campus and at its sister Science and Innovation Campus in Daresbury.
Lord Drayson, the UK’s Minister for Science and Innovation, attended the launch event in London on 22nd July where representatives from industry, academia and other government departments heard how the ESA facility will focus upon three key areas: combining data and images from space to create new applications for everyday life; climate change modelling; and the development of novel power sources and innovative robotic technologies to explore space.
an interview with Ross Tierney, who heads up a group that is promoting its DIRECT launcher as an alternative to NASA’s Constellation architecture.
Space shuttle Atlantis lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Image Credit: NASA/Carla Thomas
2010: A new space odyssey beckons
The Independent
A waste of money or a good investment?
The Obama administration puts the cost of Project Constellation – the plan to put people back on the Moon – at $187bn (£114bn).
That sum could, instead:
Space Florida has worked with local aerospace groups to craft three white papers for submission to the Augustine panel.
X-51 Waverider
Scramjets promise space travel for all
NewScientist
And yet, five years on, it is easy to regard SpaceShipOne as more anomaly than herald. After making two sub-orbital flights in two weeks, it never flew again: the craft now hangs in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. The Spaceship Company, a partnership between SpaceShipOne creator Burt Rutan and airline tycoon Richard Branson has yet to unveil the larger, passenger-ready SpaceShipTwo, although the company has revealed the carrier aircraft needed to launch it on its way to space. Most other commercial space-flight projects remain on the ground.
Space Wheat Could Feed Astronauts on Mars
Live Science
Does a sandwich on Mars taste different?
The answer could be no, according to new research that found long-term spaceflight exposure doesn’t change later generations of wheat seeds.
High costs, great risk, and the lack of places to go continue to hamper space tourism, which is tantalizingly close yet still distant.
Rocketing Past NASA
The Washington Post
Burt Rutan, the ship’s designer, had gotten tired of waiting for NASA to change — to become more nimble and innovative — or else get out of the way. So he created the first purely privately funded manned space vehicle. “Government space agencies want to commit us to their old-fashioned technologies,” he says. “We already know how that stuff works. What we need is the freedom to try some new, smarter and less expensive ideas.”
International Space Station
De-Orbit the ISS in 2016? Don’t Bet On It
The Universe
There’s been a fair amount of outcry this week regarding a quote in the Washington Post from International Space Station program manager Michael Suffredini that the ISS would be decommissioned, de-orbited and destroyed in 2016. Suffredini made that statement to the Augustine Commission, the presidential panel reviewing NASA’s future plans, at a hearing in June. But please don’t think ditching the space station is a done deal. Fiscal year 2016 is currently when the existing agreements between the international partners – and the all-important funding – expire.
Parabolic Arc will be at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh starting on Monday. Look for our coverage!
Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan has received a patent for gluing fuel tanks inside of airframes, dispensing with the need for heavy metal fasteners.
