The Space Show this week features Kevin Sloan, Chris Carberry, Bob Zimmerman, Gary Hudson and Mark Canepa.
All rocket options warrant review, skepticism
Florida Today
With the Ares I crew-launching rocket destined to end up over-budget and behind schedule, more and more experts and observers are reconsidering other options.
House agrees to cut NASA exploration
Orlando Sentinel
Overriding concerns from NASA allies in Congress, the U.S. House agreed 259-157 on Thursday evening to a 2010 budget proposal that would slash nearly $700 million from the agency’s plans to replace the space shuttle.
Moon blanket could protect lunar colony
Cosmos Magazine
The first astronauts to return to the Moon could be shielded from cosmic and solar radiation with a flexible covering designed by university students.
Peter Diamandis outlined his mission to send humanity into the cosmos at a meeting of the American Meteorological Society.
The road to Spaceport America is now paved only with red dirt. Virgin Galactic and New Mexico hope it will soon be paved in gold. (Photo Credit: Lucinda Weisbach)
I was not able to attend the Spaceport America groundbreaking, but we did have a special correspondent there. Silicon Valley educator Lucinda Weisbach filed this report from Las Cruces, NM:
One thing that was clear from my visit is that Spaceport America has been a boon for New Mexico. Speaking with Virgin Galactic’s Stephen Attenborough on the New Mexico State University campus after their pre-groundbreaking event, time and time again, one after the other, New Mexicans came up and thanked him for the new constructions jobs that the spaceport has generated.
The Space Elevator Games will be held at NASA Dryden on July 14, 2009. A total of $2 million is available in prizes.
LOCKHEED MARTIN PRESS RELEASE
Lockheed Martin [NYSE:LMT] Chairman, President and CEO Bob Stevens today told a group of journalists that as the global security environment becomes more complex, and the definition of “security” evolves, the answer to the challenges lies in the ability to form strong, healthy global partnerships.
En route to New Mexico, WhiteKnightTwo was forced to land near Phoenix due to the failure of a speed break actuator on Friday. The problem was repaired and the aircraft made a fly over of Spaceport America’s future site on Saturday.
AIA PRESS RELEASE
Industry leaders from the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD) and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) exchanged views June 16 on the current economic situation and the impact of government policy responses on the aerospace and defence industry.
Following the exchange, ASD and AIA issued the following statement:
If our respective governments continue to foster a climate in which the aerospace and defence sector can thrive, our member companies will continue to deliver products and services that contribute to global safety, security and economic prosperity. As governments across the globe forge closer partnerships with industry, our industry remains a powerful and reliable source of high tech manufacturing and engineering employment, advanced technological innovation, environmental stewardship, and export revenue. As leaders in the global marketplace, we are weathering the current economic difficulties and will continue to play a major role in the recovery.
A new type of plasma thruster (helicon double layer) invented by a physicist from the Australian National University (ANU) some years ago will be tested in a prototype satellite to be launched into space over the next four years . This is the first propellant propellant of this type and it will be the first time a spacecraft will use this type of propellant.
Popular Mechanics compares NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft, which was intentionally crashed into the moon last week:
The Kaguya orbiter, launched by the Japanese space agency (JAXA) in late 2007, had strictly scientific objectives. The agency set out to answer some of the moon’s remaining unsolved mysteries, not to mention be the first to map the moon using the latest in digital imaging technology. “LRO is not a science mission,” Jim Garvin, chief scientist at the Goddard Space Center and one of LRO’s founding fathers, told Popular Mechanics. “It has high science value, but it was conceived to provide engineering parameters for our eventual manned return to the moon.”