In conjunction with the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, Google has scheduled a press conference in Washington, DC on July 20th to make a “very special announcement about the newest addition to Google Earth.”
The blogosphere is awash with speculation as to what the Internet search giant might announce. Most of it focuses on an upgraded Google Moon program with 3-D mapping, much as the company did for Google Earth.
Spaceport America has received favorable bids on its first round of $58 million worth of bonds required to build the desert space tourism facility.
AIA President and CEO Marion Marion Blakey has praised the National Research Council’s recent report, “America’s Future in Space: Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs.”
Computer generated image showing the debris cloud around Earth.
M P Anil Kumar, a former fighter pilot of the Indian Air Force, has a published a two-part series in he urges his nation to develop a strong military space program to counter threats from China and Pakistan. It’s a very interesting read that sheds some light on what could be a developing space arms race in Asia.
Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center
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Our Views: Banding together
Meeting of Central Florida counties to retain space workers is overdue move
Florida Today
When NASA’s space shuttle fleet retires next year, thousands of Kennedy Space Center workers will lose their jobs.
Brevard County will suffer the worst, but the impact will ripple across Central Florida as other jobs and services that sustain the work force are also hit.
Engineers lose jobs at Wallops flight facility
Delmarvanow.com
Scientists who use the Wallops Flight Facility to get data from spaceflights were alarmed to learn that up to 30 engineers designing rockets got pink slips this week, according to their report.
The defense contractor, Northrop Grumman, terminated its relationship with subcontractor Orbital Sciences Corp. on July 1. The two had shared a 10-year contract with NASA to launch sounding rockets at Wallops. The vessels record scientific measurements during a suborbital flight.
EDITORIAL: Slowing the race for space
WacoTrib.com
Earth to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby: The conquest of space won’t be won by odious pork-barrel politics.
Shelby, who has often joined other Republican lawmakers in Washington decrying President Obama’s economic recovery and reinvestment act, now ironically seeks to take millions of dollars in stimulus funds targeted for private space firms and funnel them instead into Constellation, NASA’s troubled rocket program in his home state of Alabama.
The comprehensive ground test for the H-IIB Launch Vehicle using the Ground Test Vehicle (GTV) was held at the Tanegashima Space Center on July 11.
NASA MISSION UPDATE
The launch of space shuttle Endeavour was postponed until Sunday evening so engineers could evaluate the spacecraft’s myriad systems following 11 lightning strikes in the Launch Complex 39A area.
None of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and solid rocket boosters, but there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower. The launch pad is equipped with a lightning protection system of wires that is intended to steer bolts away from the shuttle.
Avanti Secures $68 Million to Switch Launch Vehicles
Space News
Start-up broadband satellite operator Avanti Communications Group of London has raised some $68 million in cash from institutional investors and the British government to pay the additional costs it will incur in shifting the launch of its first satellite to an Ariane 5 or Soyuz rocket instead of a Falcon 9 vehicle operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Avanti said….
Roskosmos has posted a transcript of a discussion between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Roskosmos administrator Anatoly Perminov. They discussed GLONASS navigation system, cooperation with China and African nations, International Space Station operations, preparations to launch Soyuz rockets out of French Guiana, and the upcoming Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars.
Alexander Gerst was invited to join the astronaut corps of the European Space Agency (ESA) in May 2009. Prior to that, he underwent an extensive selection process that culminated in his being chosen, together with five other candidates, from a total of 8413 applicants. Credit: DLR.
DLR PRESS RELEASE
The new German astronaut Alexander Gerst introduced himself to the German public for the first time on 9 July 2009 at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC), which is situated on the Cologne site of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).
