From fear to sex: Apollo 11 landing shaped views of America, space
San Jose Mercury News
“Sex, drugs and rock and roll is what’s really going to build the space environment,” said John Spencer, founder of the Space Tourism Society in Los Angeles.
Spencer, who ponders weightless romantic adventures in orbit, said hundreds of millions of private dollars and years of NASA know-how have spurred a renaissance for the budding industry.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
NASA has exercised a $294 million option to extend a contract with Wyle Laboratories Inc. of Houston to support the Space Life Sciences Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The option extends the contract to 2011.
Under the bioastronautics contract, Wyle’s work supports the International Space Station, Space Shuttle, Constellation, and the Human Research programs.
Flometrics recently tested a biodiesel rocket in California.
ATK layoffs imminent / Company to trim up to 450 in October
StandardNET
Employees at ATK Space Systems were notified Thursday that the company will eliminate as many as 450 positions in October, with the majority of the cuts happening in Utah.
SPACE FLORIDA PRESS RELEASE
Space Florida hosted a group of spaceport leaders from around the globe to attend the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Spaceport Executive Summit, the first such event of its kind.
Not a giant leap
But private firm’s rocket launch a baby step in space commercialization.
The Global Post
“These guys are entrepreneurs,†said David Livingston, host of the Internet radio site, The Space Show. “They want to lower the cost of putting payloads into orbit so that other entrepreneurs can figure out how to do new things in space. 
NASA has issued an updated report discussing job losses and transition efforts relating to the space shuttle’s retirement next year.
NASA PRESS RELEASE
The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee will hold public meetings July 28, 29, 30, Aug. 5 and 12. The meetings are open to news media representatives. No registration is required, but seating is limited to the location’s capacity. Agenda times are approximate and subject to change.
The first meeting will be July 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. CDT at the South Shore Harbour Resort and Conference Center, 2500 South Shore Blvd. in League City, Texas.
The Lynx wind tunnel model is tested with red dye at the Air Force Research Laboratory, located on Wright-Patterson AFB.
XCOR PRESS RELEASE
XCOR Aerospace, Inc., announced today that it has finished a series of wind tunnel tests of the aerodynamic design of its Lynx suborbital launch vehicle. The tests took place at the U.S. Air Force test facility located at Wright-Patterson Air Base near Dayton, OH, using an all-metal 1/16th scale model of the Lynx.
Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo with Burt Rutan and Richard Branson
Branson: Cheap space tours ‘in my lifetime’
Technology Magazine News
Virgin boss Richard Branson believes that the average middle class family will be able to afford space trips ‘within his lifetime’.
Video footage captured from the color analog gimbal camera onboard the Prioria Maveric UAV above the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station on Devon Island.
Cirque du Soleil founder ready for tricks in space
Orlando Sentinel
A former stiltwalker and fire-eater stole NASA’s show Thursday, saying he’ll be “like a kid in a candy store” experimenting with zero-gravity tricks on his upcoming tourist trip to the international space station.
